Scientists find a new big water lily in Colombia

A water lily is a plant. It lives on water. One water lily in Colombia is very big. Its leaves are up to 2 metres wide. Now it has a name: Victoria colombiana. It is a new kind of plant.

Jeremiah Harris is an American man. He sells plants. He went to a river in Colombia. He swam next to the big water lily. He took photos.

Carlos Magdalena works at Kew. Kew is a big garden in the United Kingdom. In 2021, he saw the photos on Instagram. He looked at the place on the map. He knew the plant was special.

He talked to Jeremiah Harris. Then he looked at pictures from space. He saw the plant in them.

Years later, Carlos Magdalena went to Colombia with a team. They looked for the plant for days. They did not find it. They had only 10 hours before their plane. At 1 at night, they went into the forest. The forest had a lot of water. Before morning, they found the plants on a small lake. One plant had a flower. Then they went back fast. They did not miss the plane.

Carlos Magdalena said he cried. Jeremiah Harris said he was very happy.

There are not many of these plants. Only 30 to 50 plants live in the wild. Now the team wants to take seeds from the plants. They want to grow new plants in gardens.