Victoria Boliviana record giant waterlily in Bolivia
Ladies and gentlemen……meet the new record-breaking giant waterlily species, it is a new species called: VICTORIA BOLIVIANA! It can be found in the wild only in the flood plains of the Bolivian Amazon. 🪷
This is now the largest waterlily in the world, with leaves growing as wide as 3 m (9.8 feet) in the wild.
🔎🧬 The new species was first described in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science on 4 July 2022. The scientists from the London’s Kew Gardens analyzed DNA of Victoria boliviana and found it was genetically very different from the other two members of its genus, Victoria Amazonica and Victoria Cruziana. Their results suggest that the new species is most closely related to Victoria Cruziana, and that they diverged around a million years ago.
Did you know that :
👑 The famous giant waterlily family was named after the British monarch Queen Victoria in 1852? 👸🏻
🌱 The Victoria Boliviana is a water lily species with huge, circular floating leaves that are not only gigantic by also really strong and can support at least 176 pounds? They can can easily hold the weight of a human of nearly 80 kg. You can sit on a lily pad!
🪷 Victoria flower buds develop underwater and emerge above the surface when ready to bloom?
🌸 Each flower opens over two consecutive nights, changing form and color dramatically in-between from white to pink? It’s an amazing mass of petals!
🌸 The lily produces several flowers a year, opening one at a time and only for two nights?
🪷 Victoria regia has the hardest and thickest, largest leaves of the whole plant kingdom?
Watch this brilliant time lapse with incredible camera angles.
Where to find the Victoria Boliviana water lily?
😃 Would you like to see hundreds of these giant lilies in their natural habitat? Then start planning your trip to the Bolivian Amazon!
-You can see hundred of them in the pampas of Moxos in Beni.
-The current record for the largest known specimen of Victoria Boliviana pads resides in La Rinconada, a park-restaurant with beautiful gardens located 5 km from the centre of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where leaves reached 3.2 m (10.5 feet)! This is the largest undivided/simple leaf of any plant on record.
-Botanic garden in Santa Cruz.
More info on things to do in Santa Cruz de la Sierra? Check out out list with 30+ things to do in Santa Cruz.
