How My Instagram Photo Led to a New Giant Waterlily, Victoria colombiana

I Had No Idea What I Was Looking At

We went to Guainía for carnivorous plants: Drosera, Utricularia, and Genlisea. Most of our hunting was along the Atabapo River, right on the border between Colombia and Venezuela. We traveled everywhere by boat, because this is flooded forest country, buried under about 3 meters of water for part of the year. After Sergio headed home, our main goal was complete and we had a couple of days left. I knew exactly how I wanted to spend one of them. Our local guides were Nilo Rodríguez and Gustavo Melo, and Nilo knew a spot with one or two giant waterlilies. I really wanted to see them.

Even without knowing it was a new species, it was the highlight of my trip. In total we only found two clumps, but swimming in Coca Cola colored blackwater right next to giant waterlily pads is a true holy grail for any plant aficionado. I jumped in with my iPhone and took a lot of photos, including the selfie that ended up getting it noticed. Rayner grabbed some shots with my phone from the boat before he jumped in too.

It was not a gentle swim. The undersides of the leaves and the stems are covered in prickles, and we all got stabbed. We spent about three days afterward pulling spines out of our skin, and it was completely worth it. Funny enough, the paper notes that the prickles on the flowers of this species are weaker than on amazonica and tend to bend rather than pierce skin. The leaves and stems clearly did not get that memo.

I had them pegged as Victoria amazonica. They looked the part, and I didn't think twice about it.

More From Guainía

A few more shots from the trip, back in May 2021, before any of us knew what we were looking at.

Carlos Saw Something I Didn't

Carlos Magdalena and I were Instagram friends, although we had never met in person. Our love for plants and a handful of mutual friends had brought us together. Carlos is one of the best known waterlily people in the world, and when he saw my photo he spotted the problem right away: Victoria amazonica isn't supposed to grow on the Inírida River. Its natural range doesn't reach that far.

He first messaged me in September 2021 to find out exactly where the photo was taken, and I sent him GPS data for the two spots where we had seen the plants. From there it took years to plan his expedition. Carlos spent that time studying satellite imagery, raising money, and working through permits so he could see the plants in person.

Found With Ten Hours to Spare

Carlos finally went in with Mauricio Bernal of the Jardín Botánico de Bogotá, Nilo Rodríguez, and members of the local indigenous reserves. Using the GPS data I had given them, they found both spots. There was just one problem: neither population was in flower. To officially name a new species, they needed a flower, and without one all those years of work could have ended in a near miss.

With about ten hours left before their flight home, their driver told them where else to look. They traveled overnight in complete darkness to a small lake deep in the flooded forest, and there they were, in flower.

Carlos has a line about these plants that I love: giant waterlilies "give away their secrets slowly." This one took years.

Plant taxonomist Maarten Christenhusz analyzed the samples, and the result was official. This was a new species, now named Victoria colombiana.

Science may have just discovered it, but this plant was never a secret to the people who live there. For the local communities, it has always been part of daily life. The paper credits Nilo Rodríguez as the one who first found the plant, and both Nilo and Gustavo Melo are coauthors on it right alongside me. That feels exactly right.

Big Enough to See From Space, Rare Enough to Lose

Giant waterlilies are some of the most impressive plants alive. The genus Victoria is named after Queen Victoria, and it is easy to see why these plants were treated like royalty. The biggest species can grow pads about three meters across, strong enough to hold up a small child, and they belong to one of the oldest lineages of flowering plants still around today. Victoria colombiana runs a bit smaller. The largest pad I saw was about 5 feet across, and the plants are still large enough to pick out on satellite images.

In September of this year I got to test the small child claim in person at the Redleaf Exotics open day. A pad of the famous Longwood Hybrid, a cross between amazonica and cruziana first made at Longwood Gardens in 1960, completely held the weight of my son, who is about 26 pounds. That pad was quite a bit smaller than the ones we saw in the wild.

Victoria colombiana, on the other hand, is in serious trouble. The team estimates only 30 to 50 plants exist in the wild, which would make it critically endangered before most people have even heard of it. The paper notes that satellite images show bigger patches during low water, so the count may shift as more lagoons are surveyed. Work is underway to get Victoria colombiana formally listed on the IUCN Red List, collect seed, and grow it in Bogotá. There's even talk of establishing a population in a more accessible lake within indigenous territory, and if all goes well it may one day grow at Kew.

Plants From the Same Corner of South America

Nobody can sell you a Victoria colombiana, and that's how it should be. But some of my favorite plants in the greenhouse come from the same part of the world: Heliamphora, the sun pitchers of the Guiana Highlands, just across the border from where this waterlily was hiding. If you want a piece of that landscape growing at home, these are where I'd start.

x nutans Giant$69 tatei x folliculata K60$70 pulchella Akopan Tepui$85 minor var. pilosa AW 2$175 Red Giant x Killer Giant$200 minor var. pilosa MS Giant$250

New to sun pitchers? My Heliamphora growing guide covers the cool nights, bright light, and humidity they want. For more of my travels, check out my trip hunting one of the smallest butterworts in the Arctic.