In December 2021, Jeremiah Harris, owner of a U.S. carnivorous plant nursery, posted an innocuous Instagram photo of himself beside a giant waterlily in Colombia's Inírida region, assuming it was the common giant Amazon waterlily Victoria amazonica. Carlos Magdalena, a botanical horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, spotted something wrong with that assumption: no known Victoria species naturally ranges near the Inírida River. His suspicion set off a nearly two-year quest to prove a plant unknown to science.

Magdalena confirmed the plants' presence using satellite imagery, then teamed with Mauricio Bernal-Rodriguez of a Bogotá botanical garden and indigenous community members for a five-day expedition. Days of searching produced only two plants, neither in bloom — a problem because only flowering plants yield the dried herbarium voucher needed to formally define a species. According to Gizmodo, on the very last night, guided by boatman Gustavo Melo, the team found a second batch including one in flower, detailing seven plants across two lakes before barely making their flight. The findings were published in Phytotaxa, which also elevates Victoria mattogrossensis to species rank, bringing the genus to five.

The species is formally named Victoria colombiana, and the paper credits an unusually broad authorship list: Harris, boatman Gustavo Melo, indigenous reserve members Nilo Rodríguez and Jaime Hernández, plus the two botanists. Magdalena told Gizmodo the discovery would not have been possible without collaboration spanning indigenous knowledge, botanical horticulturists from two countries and GIS satellite surveying — remarking that some of that technology, like Instagram or WhatsApp, sits in your pocket.

Celebration comes with alarm. The researchers estimate that as few as 30 to 50 Victoria colombiana plants may survive in the wild, and they plan to submit the species for critically endangered status with the IUCN, according to Gizmodo. GB News reports the team has since identified a third lake harbouring the waterlily and suggests satellite comparisons may reveal more populations when dry-season water levels fall. Magdalena warned that with so many plants threatened by extinction, action cannot wait.

Conservation plans are already moving. The researchers hope to establish a monitored population in lakes closer to indigenous residents who can watch over the plants, and to cultivate seeds at Bernal-Rodriguez's botanical gardens in Bogotá and eventually at Kew. GB News reports that a naturalised group in a more accessible lake within indigenous territory could even support local ecotourism. As Magdalena put it, connecting people from different backgrounds is key in a rapidly changing world — everyone on the expedition shared a fascination with nature.