The new giant waterlily Victoria colombiana, first flagged when botanist Carlos Magdalena spotted an Instagram photo taken five years earlier, nearly went undescribed for lack of a single flower. On a five-day expedition into the Inirida region's flooded rainforest, the team found only two individual plants — and neither was in bloom, which is essential for producing the dried, pressed herbarium specimen taxonomists need. According to The Independent, the situation looked hopeless on the evening before the team's 9 a.m. flight back to Bogota.

The species, published in the journal Phytotaxa with taxonomist Maarten Christenhusz, has pads measuring up to two metres across — roughly 6.6 feet — large enough that the plant can be seen from space. Christenhusz noted that new species are found all the time, but few are as large, spectacular and emblematic as this one. Freeyork reports that Magdalena described the expedition's conclusion as an incredibly emotional moment, one where indigenous and horticultural knowledge combined with social media and satellite imagery.

The celebration is tempered by a stark warning: conservationists estimate only 30 to 50 Victoria colombiana plants remain in the wild, a figure reported by both The Independent and Freeyork. Magdalena framed the responsibility plainly: now that the waterlily is known to exist, the task is to understand and protect it before it disappears.

Further analysis has found a third lake where the waterlily is present, and satellite comparisons suggest additional plants may become visible when water levels drop in the dry season — though reaching them on foot is harder than by boat when the forest is flooded, The Independent reports. Researchers hope to continue collecting seeds to cultivate plants in Bogota, and perhaps one day at Kew Gardens alongside the Victoria genus's other cousins. Conservationists are also exploring establishing a naturalised population in a more accessible lake within indigenous territory, supporting local ecotourism and creating a safeguarded group of plants away from the remote natural habitat.

The story stands out because it shows how many threads had to align for a formally described species: a nursery owner's mistaken identification posted to Instagram, an expert's suspicion that the Victoria amazonica could not naturally occur in the Inirida River, satellite imagery that revealed individual lily pads, and indigenous guides' knowledge of where to look. Magdalena called it one of those extraordinary stories where indigenous and horticultural knowledge with the help of social media and technology came together. It is also, as Christenhusz put it, a striking reminder of how much we still do not know about life on our planet — we can only conserve what we know exists.