World's Smallest Waterlily Saved From Extinction

Gardening

oi-Suparna Chakaraborthy

By Suparna Chakaraborthy

Thursday, May 20, 2010, 11:29

The most beautiful creation of nature, flowers are also not spared from the harsh effects of deforestation. Recently the brunt was faced by the very beautiful, World's smallest Waterlily in Africa. It is called the smallest because it's pads are just 1cm in size. This flower was on the brink of extinction but thanks to horticulturist Carlos Magdalena, who saved it.

This kind of lily was also called the Nymphaea thermarum, because it grows in freshwater hot springs. It was discovered in 1985 by German botanist Professor Eberhard Fischer of Koblenz-Landau Univeristy, Germany, in Mashyuza, Rwanda, in the south west of the country. This location got devoid of the flower two years back due to over-exploitation.

Professor Eberhard Fischer, luckily had foreseen the extinction and had sent a few samples to Bonn Botanic Gardens soon after its discovery. As generally waterlilies start life as submerged plants and then grow, the horticulturists there did the same for this lily but the effort went in vain.

Carlos, who has a track record of bringing the rarest and most difficult plants back from the brink, took on the challenge. He put the seed and the seedling into loam, maintaining the water level at the surface of the compost. He maintained the temperature of 25 degree C.

The process exposed the plant to higher concentrations of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the air. The plant responded to this and within a few weeks began to flourish. The plant became thicker and greener.

Carlos Magdalena said, "When I received this donation from Bonn, I realized how important it was for the survival of the species to find a way of growing them successfully. At first they didn't seem to respond to any of the traditional ways of treating these plants and they remained weak and failed to develop and eventually died. It was only when I searched a little deeper that the key I needed came to the surface. Now we have over 30 healthy baby plants growing here at Kew and some are producing seeds so soon we may have an army of these tiny waterlilies here at Kew. Its future in botanical collections seems secured for the long term."

The survival of the Waterlilies is the biggest achievement because this is the oldest species of flowering plant and can open many doors of the evolution of flowering plants.

Carlos says, "Our immediate priority is the ex situ conservation of the species and thereafter, if the natural flow of water in its historic location can be restored, plants grown at Kew can then be reintroduced into the wild. Also, this species may provide an opportunity to breed beautiful small and compact waterlily hybrids that don't need a pond. Gardeners would love something like this, the advent of the ''no-waterlily''."

Let all of us be a bit more sensitive to the gifts of nature. No matter how technologically equipped we may be, we should remember that we won't exists in the World without nature's support.