Giant water lily: the largest has a diameter of more than 3 meters

Discovered a new species giant water lily, its origin is South American. Found in a vegetable garden
botanist from England, it was an exceptional find as it is the largest species
world. Yes, because it has a diameter of more than 3 meters. Many will wonder how it is possible that
a water lily of this size. Also because it was found in the UK. His name is Victoria Bolivian.

The curiosity is that finding it was the experience of a botanical illustration artist combined with the intuitions of a horticulturist and the work of scientists. It all starts when some seeds of the giant water lily were given as a gift from the Bolivian Botanical Gardens to the English Royal Gardens. At the time, it was thought that these seeds came from types by Victoria Amazonica. It was one of two giant water lily species at the time, today there are three. These plants developed close to the others. All, despite their differences, thought they belonged to the same species.

It was Lucy Smith, an illustrator who portrayed plants at night, who noticed the many differences. Similar
contacted the horticulturist Carlos Magdalena. Since 2006, he was convinced of the existence of the third
giant water lily species. In addition, several Bolivian, American, British and Swedish scientists had to be involved. The latter have combined historical documents, botanical and geographical projects with the combination of data on the morphology of these water lilies. Some genomic studies have allowed the identification of the third species of the genus Victoria. It is very different from the other two, but the DNA is more like the Victoria cruziana and not the Amazon.

The Bolivian Victoria in some of its copies reaches i 3.2 meterswho classify it as the most water lily
large existing. The nocturnal flowers tend from white to pink and can only be admired in the gardens
British royals of Kew. A new species of giant water lily had not been classified for 177 years.