Rare Colombian giant water lily discovered after Instagram sighting
A new species of Victoria water lily was identified in Colombia's Inírida region following a chance photograph shared on Instagram five years ago.
Social media leads to discovery
Carlos Magdalena, a horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, noticed irregularities in photos taken by Jeremiah Harris. The images showed a plant in the Inírida River that did not match any known Victoria species in that area. Magdalena suspected the specimen represented a new genus member despite Harris initially identifying it as the common V. amazonica.
Scientific description published recently
A formal paper describing the plant was released in the journal Phytotaxa to officially name the species Victoria colombiana. The new lily features pads that can reach up to 2 meters across, joining only three other known species in its genus. Researchers conducted a boat race against time at 1 a.m. to collect samples from the flooded rainforest environment.
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