Victoria colombiana discovered after Instagram photo sparks botanical search

Botanists have identified a new species of giant waterlily, named Victoria colombiana, following a discovery triggered by an Instagram selfie. The plant, which features lily pads up to two metres in diameter, was first spotted in a 2021 photo posted by Jeremiah Harris, a US-based carnivorous plant nursery owner, in the Inírida region of eastern Colombia.

Carlos Magdalena, a researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, noticed the plant in the photo and realized its location did not align with the known natural range of the common Victoria amazonica. After verifying the presence of the plants through satellite imagery, Magdalena coordinated an expedition involving the Bogotá Botanical Garden and local indigenous communities.

The species is considered critically endangered, with an estimated wild population of only 30 to 50 individual plants. The formal scientific description of the discovery was published in the journal Phytotaxa.