Victoria colombiana , a newly recorded species of giant waterlily. Carlos Magdalena

Researchers have recorded a new species of giant waterlily after first spotting the plant in an Instagram photo.

The plant had been photographed in the Inírida River region in eastern Colombia by Jeremiah Harris, a renowned horticulturist . (Harris, who sells carnivorous plants from a nursery, holds the world record for the largest Venus flytrap ever grown.)

On Instagram, he identified the plant as Victoria amazonica , but when Carlos Magdalena, a waterlily researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, saw the photo, he knew something was amiss. Victoria amazonica is not known to grow in the Inírida region where Harris took the photo. Magdalena scanned satellite photos of the river until he spotted a group of giant waterlily pads, which can grow up to 6 feet across. Harris confirmed the lilies in the satellite image were the same ones he had seen on his trip.

A Victoria colombiana flower bud.…