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December 21, 2022, London, United Kingdom: VIDEO AVAILABLE: CONTACT INFO@COVERMG.COM TO RECEIVE**This image shows: No. 3. The worldâ??s biggest giant waterlily..The newest member of the Victoria genus of waterlilies, named after Queen Victoria, is the giant Bolivian waterlily (Victoria boliviana). With impressive leaves reaching up to 3.3 m across, it is the biggest of the three known Victoria species and features a number of differences in its shape, size, and distribution of features such as flowers, spines, and seeds. ..Confined to the wetlands of Amazonian Bolivia, the species has been assessed as Vulnerable to extinction. Observations by Carlos Magdalena, Kew botanical horticulturist, and Lucy Smith, a freelance botanical artist at RBG Kew, confirmed by Kew scientists Natalia Przelomska and Oscar A. Pérez-Escobar through DNA analysis, led to the naming of this incredible species as new to science in 2022, in partnership with 16 European and Bolivian botanists. ..Two previously known species, Victoria amazonica and Victoria cruziana, were both named in the early 19th century and have long been a source of great public interest and inspiration at RBG Kew and other botanic gardens, particularly for their massive, spiny, floating leaves, which are sometimes photographed supporting small children. Unbeknownst to Kewâ??s researchers, a dried specimen of V. boliviana had been kept in Kewâ??s Herbarium for more than 170 years before being revealed as a new species. All three species can be seen at the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew Gardens in West London. ..FEATURE: Scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and partners across the globe have picked their top 10 plant and fungal species named new to science in 2022. ..From a record-breaking giant waterlily in the wetlands of Bolivia to a waterfall-dwelling plant deemed extinct before it was named and a Ukrainian-discovered Turkish â??w (Credit Image: © Cover Images/Zuma Press/Fotoarena)
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