Chance Instagram sighting leads to discovery of rare giant water lily in Colombia

A new paper published in the journal Phytotaxa describes a new species in the genus Victoria, the Colombian giant water lily (Victoria colombiana). With only three other known species in the genus, V. colombiana joins the pantheon of nature's giants with pads measuring up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) across.

The story of how the plant came to be scientifically described begins with a chance sighting on social media before culminating in a boat race against time at 1 a.m. in a flooded Colombian rainforest.

Carlos Magdalena, botanical and scientific research horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was first made aware of the water lily on Instagram five years ago when he spotted it in photos taken in Colombia's Inírida region by Jeremiah Harris. Harris, who runs a carnivorous plant nursery in the U.S., was not aware at the time of the significance of his snapshot, mistakenly identifying the new species as the more common V. amazonica.

However, Magdalena, a water lily expert, immediately suspected something wasn't quite right, as the natural range of known Victoria water lilies does not extend to the Inírida River in Guainía, Colombia. The river is in the headwater drainage of the Orinoco River, South America's third-longest river and one of its most important waterways. This prompted him to speculate that it could be a new species.

To confirm his suspicions, Magdalena scanned the Inírida and its many surrounding lakes using satellite imagery until he saw several Victoria pads from a single plant plainly visible, verifying that Victoria plants were indeed present there. Harris confirmed that the plants seen in the online maps were the same ones shown to him by the local guides.

Magdalena then contacted Mauricio Bernal at the Jardín Botánico de Bogotá José Celestino Mutis in Bogotá, who also grows Victoria in the garden's tropical displays and has a history of collaboration with Kew.

Together, they worked closely with Nilo Rodríguez, Jaime Hernández and Gustavo Melo, members of the Indigenous reserves del río Atabapo; Caranacoa-Yurí-Laguna Morocoto; and Puinave-Piapoco el Paujil, to organize a field trip to Inírida. Rodríguez described knowing about the water lilies from their childhood but did not recall seeing many. After nearly two years of planning, an expedition to Inírida was ready.

From chance online sighting to chance rainforest encounter

Once the team was ready, they set off into Inírida's rainforest on a five-day expedition, yet by the fifth day it seemed they would return empty-handed. They initially located just two individual water lilies, but the plants were not in flower.

This was problematic, as a fertile herbarium voucher—a pressed and dried plant specimen that requires a flower—is critical for botanists to distinguish between species by comparing specimens with other herbarium vouchers, such as the 6.4 million stored at Kew's herbarium. Furthermore, the plants they encountered appeared to be struggling with high water levels and the late but intense rainy season.

Despite this, the team continued to travel along the Inírida and Guaviare rivers, hoping to find more specimens, but they failed. A breakthrough came on the eve of the team's 9 a.m. return flight to Bogotá when, at 11 p.m., Magdalena explained their anguish to the expedition's boatman, Melo, from the Indigenous Tucano community, famed for its navigational skills. Melo claimed to know exactly where to find more specimens of this water lily.

With only 10 hours left to make their return flight, they set off at 1 a.m. in pitch-black darkness, heading away from the airport, deeper and deeper into the flooded rainforest, trusting Melo's skills and instinct to navigate through the tricky environment. Just before sunrise, the team reached a small lake in the middle of the jungle where they located a second population with five additional individuals of V. colombiana, including one that was in flower.

The discovery provided the material needed to begin the formal scientific description of the species, with the team documenting a total of seven plants across two lakes before rushing back to the airport just in time for their flight.

Magdalena says, "This is one of those extraordinary stories where Indigenous and horticultural knowledge, with the help of social media and technology, came together to uncover a truly extraordinary botanical achievement. It is also a reminder that nature is still full of surprises and wonder. Now that we know this water lily exists, our responsibility is to understand it better and protect it. With so many plants in the wild threatened with extinction, we simply cannot wait any longer to take action."

The herbarium specimens were deposited and mounted at the JBB Herbarium of the Jardín Botánico de Bogotá José Celestino Mutis, and the taxonomic work started with the help and supervision of Maarten Christenhusz, a plant taxonomist, author and horticulture historian working in Wales for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and an honorary research associate at RBG Kew.

Christenhusz says, "New species are found all the time, but few are as large, spectacular and emblematic as this one. This new giant water lily can even be seen from space, which is a striking reminder of how much we still don't know about life on our planet. We can only conserve what we know exists, and discoveries like this show why exploring and understanding the natural world is so important."

Bernal adds, "It is wonderful to see how, even today, what is ordinary and commonplace to one person can be a hidden treasure to another. Dialogue and the collective construction of knowledge reveal their power and elegance in this case study. I am very proud to have been part of this discovery alongside my colleagues."

The highs and lows of botanical research

Subsequent analysis using geographic information systems (GIS) by Carlos A. Pedraza-Penalosa, from DreamGIS Colombia, revealed a third lake where the water lily was present. Comparisons of satellite imagery suggested additional plants may become visible during the drier seasons when water levels drop. This, however, makes reaching the plants trickier, as the terrain is easier to navigate by boat in the high-water season, when the forests are flooded, than it is on foot.

At present, the team estimates there are between 30 and 50 individual V. colombiana plants in the wild, indicating the species is extremely rare and at risk of extinction. Searching for unknown populations through more robust satellite imagery scanning to uncover the actual number of individuals and natural populations is therefore essential, and the team is working toward an official IUCN Red List assessment of the species as critically endangered.

There is hope, however, as efforts are underway to support the long-term conservation of V. colombiana, including the possibility of establishing a naturalized population in a more accessible lake within Indigenous territory. Such a site could support local ecotourism while providing an additional safeguarded population outside the species' remote natural habitat.

Researchers hope to continue efforts to collect seeds, with the aim of cultivating plants in Bogotá and learning more about the species under controlled conditions. If the efforts are successful, it may even be grown one day at Kew Gardens alongside its cousins: V. amazonica, V. cruziana and V. boliviana.