Victoria amazonica

{{Short description|Species of plant}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Speciesbox | name = Queen Victoria's water lily | image = Victoria amazonica edit 1.jpg | image_caption = ''Victoria amazonica'' at the Adelaide Botanic Garden | genus = Victoria (plant) | species = amazonica | authority = (Poepp.) J.C. Sowerby | synonyms = *''Euryale amazonica'' Poepp *''Nymphaea victoria'' M.R.Schomb. ex Lindl. *''Victoria regina'' R.H.Schomb. *''Victoria regia'' Lindl. | synonyms_ref = <ref name="Knotts"/><ref name="rosetyler"/><ref name="Letters"/> }}

'''''Victoria amazonica''''' ("giant water lily") is a species of flowering plant, the second largest in the water lily family Nymphaeaceae. It is called '''Vitória-Régia''' or '''Iaupê-Jaçanã''' ("the jacana's waterlily") in Brazil and '''Atun Sisac''' ("great flower") in Inca (Quechua). Its native region is tropical South America, specifically Guyana and the Amazon Basin.

==Taxonomy== [[File:Victoria Regia. (Expanded flower) (1851).jpeg|thumb|Illustration by Fitch, 1851]]

The species is a member of the genus ''Victoria'', placed in the family Nymphaeaceae or sometimes in the Euryalaceae.<ref name="GRIN">{{cite web |date=27 Jan 2005 |title=Genus: Victoria Lindl. |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?12702 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813003726/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?12702 |archive-date=2009-08-13 |access-date=2009-04-04 |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture}}</ref> The first published description of the genus was by John Lindley in October 1837, based on specimens of this plant returned from British Guiana by Robert Schomburgk. Lindley named the genus after the newly ascended Queen Victoria, and the species ''Victoria regia''.<ref name="Knotts">{{cite web |last=Knotts |first=Kit |title=Victoria's History |url=http://www.victoria-adventure.org/victoria/victoria_history.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414213419/http://www.victoria-adventure.org/victoria/victoria_history.html |archive-date=2009-04-14 |access-date=2009-04-04 |work=Victoria Adventure |publisher=Knotts}}</ref> The spelling in Schomburgk's description in ''Athenaeum'', published the month before, was given as ''Victoria Regina''.<ref name="rosetyler">R.H.Schomb., Athenaeum 515:661. Sep 9, 1837</ref> Despite this spelling being adopted by the Botanical Society of London for their new emblem, Lindley's was the version used throughout the 19th century.<ref name="Letters">{{cite web |last=Trehane |first=Piers |author2=Pagels, Walter |year=2001 |title=Victoria Regia or Victoria Regina? How A Politics Can Change A Waterlily Name |url=http://www.victoria-adventure.org/more_than_links/walter_regina_regia.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813054707/http://www.victoria-adventure.org/more_than_links/walter_regina_regia.html |archive-date=2009-08-13 |access-date=2009-04-04 |work=Letters. (cited at GRIN) |publisher=Victoria Adventure}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Opitz |first=Donald L. |date=21 June 2013 |title='The sceptre of her pow'r': nymphs, nobility, and nomenclature in early Victorian science |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=67–94 |doi=10.1017/S0007087413000319 |s2cid=143944267}}</ref>

An earlier account of the species, ''Euryale amazonica'' by Eduard Friedrich Poeppig, in 1832, described an affinity with ''Euryale ferox''. A collection and description were also made by the French botanist Aimé Bonpland in 1825.<ref name="Knotts" /><ref name="IPNI">{{cite web |year=2005 |title=Nymphaeaceae Victoria Lindl. |url=http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=28016-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813003524/http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=28016-1 |archive-date=2009-08-13 |access-date=2009-04-04 |work=Plant Name Details |publisher=International Plant Name Index}}</ref> In 1850 James De Carle Sowerby<ref>Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, 6, 310</ref> recognized Poeppig's earlier description and transferred its epithet ''amazonica''. The new name was rejected by Lindley. The current name, ''Victoria amazonica'', did not come into widespread use until the 20th century.<ref name="Letters" />

=== Cytology === The diploid chromosome count of ''Victoria amazonica'' is 20.<ref name="Pellicer et al., 2013">{{cite journal | last1=Pellicer | first1=J. | last2=Kelly | first2=L.J. | last3=Magdalena | first3=C. | last4=Leitch | first4=I.J. | title=Insights into the dynamics of genome size and chromosome evolution in the early diverging angiosperm lineage Nymphaeales (Water lilies) | journal=Genome | date=2013 | volume=56 | issue=8 | pages=437–449 | doi=10.1139/gen-2013-0039 | pmid=24168627 | bibcode=2013Genom..56..437P | url=https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/gen-2013-0039?download=true }}</ref>

==Description== ''Victoria amazonica'' has very large leaves (lamina; commonly called "pads" or "lily pads"), up to {{cvt|3|m|ft|-1}} in diameter, that float on the water's surface on a submerged stalk (petiole), {{cvt|7-8|m}} in length, rivaling the length of the green anaconda, a snake local to its habitat. These leaves are enormously buoyant if the weight is distributed evenly over the entire surface of the leaf (as by a piece of plywood, which should be of neutral buoyancy). In 1896 a ''V. amazonica'' leaf at Tower Grove Park, Saint Louis, Missouri bore the "unprecedented" weight of {{cvt|250|lb|kg|order=flip}}.<ref>{{ cite book| last= Tricker | first= William | date= 1897 | title= The Water Garden | location= New York | publisher= A. T. De la Mare Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd. |page= 54 }}</ref> However, in 1867 William Sowerby of Regents Park Botanic Garden in London placed {{cvt|194|kg}} on a leaf only {{cvt|168|cm}} in diameter.<ref>Gardener's Chronicle Volume 29 (first series) (November 6, 1869) p.1164.</ref> One leaf of a specimen grown in Ghent, Belgium bore a load of {{cvt|226|kg}}<ref>Gardener's Chronicle op. cit. p. 865.</ref> It is the second-largest waterlily in the world. The leaves and flowers spring forth from a perennial rhizome up to {{cvt|20|cm}} thick. The rhizome can live at least 7 years, but often much shorter (frequently annual) due to seasonal fluctuations in water level.<ref name="Prance">{{cite journal | last1=Prance | first1=Ghillean T. | last2=Arias | first2=Jorge R. | title=A study of the Floral Biology of ''Victoria amazonica'' (Poepp.) Sowerby (Nymphaeaceae) | journal=Acta Amazonica | volume=5 | issue=2 | date=1975 | issn=0044-5967 | doi=10.1590/1809-43921975052109 | doi-access=free | pages=109–139 | bibcode=1975AcAma...5..109P | url=https://www.scielo.br/j/aa/a/HVTyy5Qybq3wnCmMHSTFtHy/?lang=en&format=pdf | access-date=2025-07-03}}</ref> Because of the leaf's air spaces, the leaf is surprisingly light. Laurent Saint-Cricq (pen name "Paul Marcoy") found a leaf {{cvt|2.6|m}} diameter weighed only {{cvt|6.1|kg}}.<ref>{{cite book | last= Marcoy | first= Paul | date= 1869 | title= Voyage a Travers l'Amerique de Sud...etc - Volume 2| location= Paris | publisher= Librarie de L. Hachette et Cie | page= 175 }}</ref>

''V. amazonica'' is native to the still and slow-moving waters of the Amazon River basin and some other drainage basins of northern South America,<ref name="POWO">{{cite POWO |title=''Victoria amazonica'' (Poepp.) Klotzsch |id=605776-1 |access-date=2025-07-03}}</ref> growing in water up to 5.25 m deep.<ref name="Prance"/> In their native habitat, the flowers first begin to open as the sun starts to set and can take up to 48 hours to fully open.<ref name="Prance" /> These flowers can grow up to {{cvt|40|cm}} in diameter and {{cvt|1.6|kg}} in weight,<ref>{{cite book | last= Vincent | first= Frank | date= 1898 | title= The Plant World | location= New York | publisher= D. Appleton and Co. | page= 125 }}</ref> exceeded in mass only by members of the genus ''Rafflesia''.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}} All of the flowers of one particular plant will, on a given evening, all be in the female phase or all in the male phase, so that pollination must be by a different individual, precluding self-pollination.<ref>{{cite book | last1= Prance | first1= Ghillian T. | last2= Lovejoy | first2= Thomas E. | date= 1985| title= Key Environments - Amazonia | location= Oxford, England | publisher= Pergamon Press | page= 181 }}</ref>

The stem and underside of the leaves are coated with many small spines to defend itself from fish and other herbivores that dwell underwater,<ref>{{cite web |title=Giant Water lily |url=https://conservatoryofflowers.org/giant-water-lily/ |access-date=25 January 2022 |website=Conservatory of Flowers |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929111615/https://conservatoryofflowers.org/giant-water-lily/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> although they can also play an offensive role in crushing rival plants in the vicinity as the lily unfolds as it aggressively seeks and hogs sunlight,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Daniel |first1=Hugo |date=9 January 2022 |title=Sir David Attenborough and a murder most florid |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/sir-david-attenborough-and-a-murder-most-florid-xzxd9cq6m |access-date=28 January 2022 |website=The Times}}{{subscription required}}</ref> depriving other plants directly beneath its leaves of such vital resource and significantly darkening the waters below.<ref>{{cite web |title=Victoria Water Lily Facts |url=https://www.rainforestcruises.com/guides/victoria-water-lily-facts |access-date=26 January 2022 |website=Rainforest Cruises}}</ref> Younger giant water lilies are even known to swing their spiny stalks and buds around as they grow to forcibly make space for themselves.<ref>{{cite web |date=16 January 2022 |title=The Tyrant of the Deep - The Green Planet - BBC Earth |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM-Ilh2lHZk |access-date=26 January 2022 |website=YouTube |publisher=BBC Earth}}</ref>

== Ecology == left|thumb|Illustration on a stamp Each plant continues to produce flowers for a full growing season, and they have co-evolved a mutualistic relationship with a species of scarab beetle of the genus ''Cyclocephala'' as a pollinator.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=SEYMOUR|first1=ROGER S.|last2=MATTHEWS|first2=PHILIP G. D.|date=December 2006|title=The Role of Thermogenesis in the Pollination Biology of the Amazon Waterlily Victoria amazonica|journal=Annals of Botany|volume=98|issue=6|pages=1129–1135|doi=10.1093/aob/mcl201|issn=0305-7364|pmc=2803590|pmid=17018568}}</ref> All the buds in a single patch will begin to open at the same time and as they do, they give off a fruity smell.<ref name="Prance" /> At this point, the flower petals are white, and the beetles are attracted both to the colour and the smell of the flower. At nightfall the flower stops producing the odor, and it closes, trapping the beetles inside its carpellary appendages.<ref name="Prance" /> Here, the stamens are protected by the paracarpels, and for the next day, the flower continues to remain closed. The cavity in which the beetle is trapped is composed of a spongy, starchy tissue that provides nourishment for the beetle. During this time, anthocyanins start to be released by the plant, which in turn changes the petals from white to a reddish pink colour, a sign that the flower will have been pollinated.<ref name="Prance" /> As the beetle feeds inside the flower, the stamens fall inward, and the anthers, which have already fallen, drop pollen on the stamens.<ref name="Prance" /> During the evening of the second day, the flowers will have opened enough to release the beetle, and as it pushes its way through the stamens, it becomes covered in pollen.<ref name="Prance" /> These insects will then go on to find a newly opened water lily and pollinate with the pollen they are carrying from the previous flower. This process was described in detail by Sir Ghillean Prance and Jorge Arius.<ref name="Prance"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victoria-adventure.org/victoria/myths_and_misunderstandings.html|title=Myths and Misunderstandings About Victoria|website=www.victoria-adventure.org|access-date=25 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815102035/http://www.victoria-adventure.org/victoria/myths_and_misunderstandings.html|archive-date=15 August 2017|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

=== Conservation status === ''Victoria amazonica'' has not yet been formally evaluated for the IUCN Red List, but a 2022 assessment proposed it as Least Concern (LC) due to its wide distribution across the Amazon basin. Potential threats include deforestation and climate change impacts on wetland ecosystems, though it is not currently considered endangered.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Giant waterlily - Victoria amazonica {{!}} Plants {{!}} Kew |url=https://www.kew.org/plants/giant-waterlily |access-date=2025-12-10 |website=www.kew.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Lucy T. |last2=Magdalena |first2=Carlos |last3=Przelomska |first3=Natalia A. S. |last4=Pérez-Escobar |first4=Oscar A. |last5=Melgar-Gómez |first5=Darío G. |last6=Beck |first6=Stephan |last7=Negrão |first7=Raquel |last8=Mian |first8=Sahr |last9=Leitch |first9=Ilia J. |last10=Dodsworth |first10=Steven |last11=Maurin |first11=Olivier |last12=Ribero-Guardia |first12=Gaston |last13=Salazar |first13=César D. |last14=Gutierrez-Sibauty |first14=Gloria |last15=Antonelli |first15=Alexandre |date=2022 |title=Revised Species Delimitation in the Giant Water Lily Genus Victoria (Nymphaeaceae) Confirms a New Species and Has Implications for Its Conservation |journal=Frontiers in Plant Science |volume=13 |article-number=883151 |doi=10.3389/fpls.2022.883151 |doi-access=free |issn=1664-462X |pmc=9289450 |pmid=35860537 |bibcode=2022FrPS...1383151S }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Environment |first=Joseph Kiprop in |date=2018-04-10 |title=Amazing Facts About The Victoria Amazonica |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/amazing-facts-about-the-victoria-amazonica.html |access-date=2025-12-10 |website=WorldAtlas |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Cultivation == ''V. amazonica'' is cultivated in botanical gardens worldwide, requiring warm water temperatures of 29–32°C (85–90°F) for optimal growth; mature plants tolerate slightly cooler conditions (24–27°C or 75–80°F). Propagation is primarily by seed, which should be stored submerged in water and scarified to accelerate germination. Rhizome division is also possible during the growing season. In temperate regions, it is grown as an annual in containers with organically rich loam substrate in still water 1–3 m deep.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Victoria amazonica (Amazon Water Lily) |url=https://www.gardenia.net/plant/victoria-amazonica |access-date=2025-12-10 |website=Gardenia |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=How we grow giant waterlilies at Kew {{!}} Kew |url=https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/growing-propagation-giant-waterliles |access-date=2025-12-10 |website=www.kew.org |language=en}}</ref>

==History== [[File:Victoria Regia LIN 1849-.jpg|upright=1.5|thumb|<poem>"On unbent leaf in fairy guise, Reflected in the water, Beloved, admired by hearts and eyes, Stands Annie, Paxton's daughter...":</poem> "The Gigantic Waterlily (Victoria Regia), In Flower At Chatsworth", 1849]]

''Victoria regia'', as it was named, was described by Tadeáš Haenke in 1801.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bgbm.org/de/node/1233|title=Sonderausstellung 2004 {{!}} BGBM|website=Bgbm.org|date=15 March 2012 |access-date=2016-11-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103234214/http://www.bgbm.org/de/node/1233|archive-date=2016-11-03|url-status=live}}</ref> It was once the subject of rivalry between Victorian gardeners in England. Always on the lookout for a spectacular new species with which to impress their peers, Victorian "gardeners"<ref>In reality, they did little or no actual gardening at all. Still, they employed talented horticulturalists such as Joseph Paxton (for Devonshire) and the forgotten Mr Ivison (for Northumberland) to run their estates and gardens.</ref> such as the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Northumberland started a well-mannered competition to become the first to cultivate and bring to flower this enormous lily. In the end, the two aforementioned dukes became the first to achieve this, Joseph Paxton (for the Duke of Devonshire) being the first in November 1849 by replicating the lily's warm swampy habitat (not easy in winter in England with only coal-fired boilers for heating), and a "Mr Ivison" the second and more constantly successful (for Northumberland) at Syon House.

The species captured the public's imagination and was the subject of several dedicated monographs. The botanical illustrations of cultivated specimens in Fitch and W.J. Hooker's 1851 work ''Victoria Regia''<ref>"Victoria Regia : or, Illustrations of the Royal water-lily, in a series of figures chiefly made from specimens flowering at Syon and at Kew by Walter Fitch; with descriptions by Sir W. J. Hooker. ".</ref> received critical acclaim in the ''Athenaeum'', "they are accurate, and they are beautiful".<ref>{{cite book|last=Allibone|first=Samuel Austin |title=A critical dictionary of English literature and British and American authors|publisher=George W. Childs|year=1863|volume=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u6AMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA881}}</ref> "The Duke of Devonshire presented Queen Victoria with one of the first of these flowers and named it in her honour. The lily, with ribbed undersurface and leaves veining "like transverse girders and supports", "as Paxton's inspiration for The Crystal Palace, a building four times the size of St. Peter's in Rome."<ref>H. Peter Loewer. ''The Evening Garden: Flowers and Fragrance from Dusk Till Dawn''. Timber Press, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-88192-532-6}}. Page 130.</ref>

It is depicted in the Guyanese coat of arms.<ref name="Knotts-history-2017">{{cite web |last1=Knotts |first1=Kit |title=Victoria's history |url=http://www.victoria-adventure.org/victoria/victoria_history.html |access-date=10 August 2020 |website=Water Gardeners International}}</ref>

==Gallery== <gallery> File:Victoria amazonica, back side of a leaf (Kobe Kachoen).jpg|Underside of a leaf File:Victoria Regia01.jpg|Leaf File:Victoria amazonica bud.jpg|Flower bud, Adelaide Botanic Gardens File:Victoria amazonica full view.jpg|Flower File:Victoria amazonica in Botanical garden Brno glasshouse in Brno, Brno-City District.jpg|In botanical garden of Brno File:Victoria amazonica (Kobe Kachoen).jpg|In Kobe Kachoen File:Adelaide botanic gardens.jpg|In the Adelaide Botanic Gardens File:Vitregias02.jpg|In Paraense Emílio Goeldi Museum File:Victoria amazonica, 2015-08-08, Phipps Conservatory, 08.jpg|In Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Pittsburgh File:ErfgoedLeiden LEI001014796 Kas met Victoria Regia in de Hortus Botanicus.jpeg|In bloom in the Hortus Botanicus Leiden at the end of the 19th century Image:Victoria Amazonia Giant water lilies near Manaus, Brazil.jpg|''Victoria amazonica'' in the Amazon basin near Manaus, Brazil Image:A bird on Victoria Amazonia Giant water lilies near Manaus, Brazil.jpg|A bird on ''V. amazonica'' near Manaus, Brazil </gallery>

==References==

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline}} * {{Wikispecies-inline}}

Category:Nymphaeaceae Category:Aquatic plants Category:Flora of the Amazon Category:Flora of Brazil Category:National symbols of Guyana Category:Flora of Guyana Category:Flora of Bolivia Category:Flora of Colombia Category:Flora of Peru Category:Plants described in 1836 Category:Garden plants of South America Category:Cultural depictions of Queen Victoria Category:Taxa named by Eduard Friedrich Poeppig