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Kew Gardens Announces New Giant Waterlily Species

Head gardener Petra Putova, at the Liberec Botanical Garden in the Czech Republic, shows the smallest water lily in the world, Nymphaea thermarum, next to the largest, the giant Amazonian water lily (Victoria amazonica). PHOTOGRAPH BY RADEK PETRASEK, CTK/AP IMAGES
Head gardener Petra Putova, at the Liberec Botanical Garden in the Czech Republic, shows the smallest water lily in the world, Nymphaea thermarum, next to the largest, the giant Amazonian water lily (Victoria amazonica). PHOTOGRAPH BY RADEK PETRASEK, CTK/AP IMAGES
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Kew Gardens Announces New Giant Waterlily Species

Head gardener Petra Putova, at the Liberec Botanical Garden in the Czech Republic, shows the smallest water lily in the world, Nymphaea thermarum, next to the largest, the giant Amazonian water lily (Victoria amazonica). PHOTOGRAPH BY RADEK PETRASEK, CTK/AP IMAGES
Head gardener Petra Putova, at the Liberec Botanical Garden in the Czech Republic, shows the smallest water lily in the world, Nymphaea thermarum, next to the largest, the giant Amazonian water lily (Victoria amazonica). PHOTOGRAPH BY RADEK PETRASEK, CTK/AP IMAGES

Experts at London's Kew Gardens on Monday revealed they have discovered the first new giant waterlily species since the mid-19th century -- after it was initially mistaken for another.

Specimens of the new species had lain undiscovered at the botanical garden for 177 years and in the National Herbarium of Bolivia for 34 years, AFP said.

It had been thought they were from the "Victoria amazonica", one of the two known varieties of giant waterlilies whose genus was named after queen Victoria in 1852.

But their true identity was revealed after experts at Kew worked with a team from the Latin American country to establish they were in fact a third variety.

As well as being the newest species of giant waterlily, "Victoria boliviana", whose leaves grow as wide as three meters in the wild, is also the largest in the world.

A paper detailing the years of detective work is outlined in a paper in the journal Frontiers in Plant Sciences, published on Monday.

Seeds from the suspected third giant waterlily species were donated by Santa Cruz de La Sierra Botanic Garden and La Rinconada Gardens in Bolivia.

Botanical artist Lucy Smith said they had been growing -- unlabeled -- in a glasshouse at Kew for the last four years.

"A few people have asked, why does this one look so different from the others? But we've had to say, well, we think it's similar to this or similar to that," she told AFP.

"So in fact, we've had this wonderful secret hiding in plain sight all this time."

Carlos Magdalena, a research horticulturalist who specializes in saving plant species that are near extinction, described the plant as "one of the botanical wonders of the world".

Magdalena said some 2,000 new plant species are identified every year but he added: "What I think is very unusual is a plant (this) size with this level of fame to be discovered in the year 2022.

"That is quite unusual. It also highlights how many things could be out there.

"It really highlights how little we know in the end about our natural world."

Giant waterlilies bloom and turn from white to pink at night.

"Victoria boliviana" is named in honor of the Bolivian partners on the team and the plant's natural ecosystem.

Kew is the only place in the world where all three species of the Victoria genus -- "amazonica", "cruziana" and now "boliviana" -- can be seen side by side.

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Varieties

Jungle Music: Chimp Drumming Reveals Building Blocks of Human Rhythm

In this photo provided by researchers, a wild male chimpanzee produces a pant-hoot call to elicit a response from distant group members and reunite with them in the Budongo Forest of Uganda in June 2016. (Adrian Soldati via AP)
In this photo provided by researchers, a wild male chimpanzee produces a pant-hoot call to elicit a response from distant group members and reunite with them in the Budongo Forest of Uganda in June 2016. (Adrian Soldati via AP)
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Jungle Music: Chimp Drumming Reveals Building Blocks of Human Rhythm

In this photo provided by researchers, a wild male chimpanzee produces a pant-hoot call to elicit a response from distant group members and reunite with them in the Budongo Forest of Uganda in June 2016. (Adrian Soldati via AP)
In this photo provided by researchers, a wild male chimpanzee produces a pant-hoot call to elicit a response from distant group members and reunite with them in the Budongo Forest of Uganda in June 2016. (Adrian Soldati via AP)

Like humans, chimpanzees drum with distinct rhythms - and two subspecies living on opposite sides of Africa have their own signature styles, according to a study published in Current Biology.

Previous work showed chimpanzees pound the huge flared buttress roots of rainforest trees to broadcast low‑frequency booms through dense foliage.

The idea that ape drumming might hold clues to the origins of human musicality has long fascinated scientists, but collecting enough clean data amid the cacophony of the jungle had, until now, proven elusive.

“Finally we've been able to quantify that chimps drum rhythmically - they don't just randomly drum,” lead author Vesta Eleuteri of the University of Vienna told AFP.

The findings lend fresh weight to the theory that the raw ingredients of human music were present before our evolutionary split from chimpanzees six million years ago.

For the new study, Eleuteri and colleagues - including senior authors Catherine Hobaiter of the University of St Andrews in the UK and Andrea Ravignani of Sapienza University in Rome - compiled more than a century's worth of observational data.

After cutting through the noise, the team focused on 371 high-quality drumming bouts recorded from 11 chimpanzee communities across six populations living in both rainforest and savannah-woodland habitats across eastern and western Africa.

Their analysis showed that chimpanzees drum with definitive rhythmic intent - the timing of their strikes is not random.

Distinct differences also emerged between subspecies: western chimpanzees tended to produce more evenly timed beats, while eastern chimpanzees more frequently alternated between shorter and longer intervals.

Western chimps also drummed more frequently, kept a quicker tempo, and began drumming earlier in their signature chimp calls, made up of rapid pants and hoots.

The researchers do not yet know what is driving the differences - but they propose that it might signify differences in social dynamics.

The western chimps' faster, predictable pulse might promote or be evidence of greater social cohesion, the authors argue, noting that western groups are generally less aggressive toward outsiders.

By contrast, the eastern apes' variable rhythms could carry extra nuance - handy for locating or signaling companions when their parties are more widely dispersed.

Next, Hobaiter says she would like to study the data further to understand whether there are intergenerational differences between rhythms within the same groups.

“Music is not only a difference between different musical styles, but a musical style like rock or jazz, is itself going to evolve over time,” she said.

“We're actually going to have to find a way to tease apart group and intergenerational differences to get at that question of whether or not it is socially learned,” she said. “Do you have one guy that comes in with a new style and the next generation picks it up?”