In research out this week, scientists describe having found a new species of giant waterlily that was initially spotted in an Instagram post. That post eventually set the researchers out on a journey through Columbia, where they were able to confirm the plant’s existence at the last possible second. Unfortunately, though, the waterlily may already be critically endangered.

“We live in a wonderful world where there are many extraordinary forms of life, all of them unique and many which are being destroyed before we get to know them,” lead study author Carlos Magdalena, a botanical and scientific research horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK, told Gizmodo.

In December 2021, Jeremiah Harris posted an innocuous photo he had taken of himself next to a giant waterlily in the Inírida region of eastern Colombia. Harris, the owner of a carnivorous plant nursery in the U.S., assumed the plant was simply an example of the giant Amazon waterlily (Victoria amazonica). But when Magdalena came across the post, he soon clocked something off about that assumption—namely, that this species isn’t thought to naturally reside near the Inírida River. He began to suspect that Harris had inadvertently discovered a previously unknown Victoria.

Using satellite imagery, Magdalena confirmed the presence of Victoria plants in the region. He got in touch with Harris, who confirmed these images matched the plants he had seen. From there, Magdalena started coordinating with Mauricio Bernal-Rodriguez, a fellow researcher at a botanical garden in Bogotá, as well as several members of indigenous communities in the area.

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