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

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.