Media – Articles
© Carlos Magdalena RBG Kew
“We won’t find another planet and move to it: the chances of this happening are nil. We have been given one Earth and we are not managing it properly. We don’t deserve another.”
― Sr. Don Carlos Magdalena
Phytotaxa
Oct 2026
‘By mapping populations of Victoria on a river drainage map of South America and conducting morphological comparisons, it is obvious that two additional species warrant recognition: Victoria mattogrossensis in the Pantanal region and Victoria colombiana in the upper Orinoco drainage of Colombia. The latter was first noticed in an Instagram post and can be seen from space. We find that lack of known animal dispersers of the seeds and the sensitivity of the seeds to desiccation results in rivers and their floodwaters being the main means of dispersal for Victoria. The isolation of the river basins since the Pliocene in combination with changing river courses over time has putatively resulted in diversification of the genus. The currently five accepted species differ in morphology and distribution. A key to the species and a nomenclatural overview with full synonymy and typification are provided.’
Recently published by Magdalena, C., Bernal-Rodriguez, M., Pedraza-Peñaloza, C.A., Hernández, J., Melo, G., Rodríguez, N., Harris, J. & Christenhusz, M.J. (2026) Discovery of a new species of Victoria (Nymphaeaceae) in the Orinoco watershed of Colombia. Phytotaxa 778 (2): 101–136. Read paper…
El Pais
Oct 2026
Victoria colombiana: descubren nueva especie del emblemático lirio de agua gigante. Un equipo de investigadores de los jardines botánicos de Kew, Inglaterra, y de Bogotá, junto a conocedores indígenas de la cuenca del Orinoco acaban de publicar el hallazgo en la revista científica Phytotaxa. Estiman que existen únicamente entre 30 y 50 individuos en estado silvestre Read more…
National Geographic 33.
Mar 2025
A new multi-platform list to highlight and celebrate 33 individuals (in honor of the 33 founders of the Society) “whose imaginative ideas and unstoppable drive are making the world a better place. How ‘Plant Messiah’, El Mesías de las plantas, Carlos Magdalena rescues endangered species from near extinction. The horticulturist travels the world in search of troubled species to propagate. His motivation? “Plants are the alchemists of our universe.” Read more…
New York Times
Aug 2024
Risking His Own Extinction to Rescue the Rarest of Flowers. Carlos Magdalena, whose botanical adventures have shades of Indiana Jones, was a driving force in saving the world’s smallest water lily, Nymphaea thermarum and finding the largest one. He has been called the “Plant Messiah, El Mesías de las plantas” Read more…
Here is the version of this article in Spanish. Although the author of the article is Colombiana Silvana Paternostro, this is a translation of her text in English and not as she would write in Spanish. Read more…
IWGS
Aug 2024
The International Water Lily & Water Gardening Society inducted Carlos in 2024. ‘Carlos’ life as a dedicated Nymphaeaophile, or as he says in his book, “a waterlily addict”, began as a child with a small pond dug by his father in his parents’ yard in Asturia, in northern Spain. His first waterlily, a white foundling, quickly filled the pond, and further captivated the young Carlos.’ Read more…
Guinness World Records
Jan 2023
When it comes to nature records, it is typically never-before-documented species discovered in the depths of the jungle or ocean that steal the limelight. But sometimes even record-setting flora and fauna might have been lying under our noses for hundreds of years, hidden in plain sight. Such is the case with Victoria boliviana, the first new species of giant waterlily to be confirmed in more than 100 years. Read more…
British Spanish Society
Oct 2022
It felt somewhat poetic to visit Kew as an eclectic mix of people, gathered from across Britain and Spain with different ages, backgrounds and interests to visit plants collected from across the globe, with varied growing needs and purposes in life. Carlos is truly a rock star of botany, his tales must cover only the surface of the secret lives of plants, their ways of communicating (even they argue!) and their rightful position at the top of the eco-system. A couple of hours at Kew with Carlos definitely is not enough. Read more…
Natural History Museum
July 2022
The world’s largest waterlily Victoria boliviana is larger than a double bed. Even though it is visible from satellite imagery, it had remained undetected until now. The solving of a botanical mystery has led to the discovery of one of Earth’s largest plant species. Though its leaves grow over three metres wide, it has been overlooked for almost 200 years. Confusion with its close relatives, as well as wider scientific uncertainty, has meant that it has only just been described as its own species. Read more…
The Guardian
Jul 2022
Newly identified waterlily species Victoria boliviana is world’s largest. Leaves of species grown at Kew Gardens can reach up to three metres in the wild. Read more…
Frontiers.
July 2022
Front. Plant Sci. Sec. Plant Systematics and Evolution. Volume 13 – 2022 Revised Species Delimitation in the Giant Water Lily Genus Victoria (Nymphaeaceae) Confirms a New Species (Victoria boliviana) and Has Implications for Its Conservation Read more…
Welcome to the Jungle
Nov 2019
The Plant Messiah: meet the man on a horticultural mission. Carlos Magdalena is in charge of the tropical nursery at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. A self-taught botanical horticulturist with boundless energy, he has dedicated his life to saving and conserving plants threatened with extinction. Here, he explains his very unusual job—and how he came to be revered as “The Plant Messiah”. Read more…
Mongabay
Nov 2019
Bringing back extinct plants to life: Q&A with ‘Plant Messiah’, El Mesías de las plantas, “Plants are not as obvious as animals,” Carlos tells Mongabay. “You see an animal and it’s very easy for you to feel empathy for the animal because you’re an animal too. But you cannot see a plant truly until you know it well, until you know the facts surrounding it, what pollinates it, what magic tricks it can do.” Read more…
Wonderground
Aug 2018
Picture the scene: The Kimberley, northern Australia. Dingos howl in the darkness outside as the plant hunter walks bleary-eyed into the common room before the crack of dawn. Breakfast is being served around two long tables: one for a gaggle of women, the other for a herd of taciturn men. Read more…
Beautiful Now
Jun 2018
Like a modern botanical version of Noah, Carlos Magdalena, El Mesías de las plantas, is working to save every species of plant on the planet.Over one fifth of all the world’s plants are in danger of extinction. Magdalena, a senior botanical horticulturist at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, travels far and wide to find the world’s endangered species and find out how to cultivate them before they disappear from the face of the earth forever. Read more…
Wall Street Journal
Jun 2018
Richard Conniff in his review of ‘The Plant Messiah” writes, ‘Not long ago, while teaching a couple of college courses about the natural world, I plucked a random selection of tree leaves on my way into class and asked my students to identify them. These were Yale and Wesleyan students, all highly educated and aware of the world around them—and most of them could not even name oak leaves. They were suffering from what botanists call “plant blindness”: the tendency to take plants for granted as the undifferentiated green backdrop to our lives. It’s an epidemic, compounded by our penchant for plowing down forests and meadows everywhere, oblivious that what we are destroying is ourselves.’ Read more…
Los Angeles Times
Apr 2018
Willy Blackmore writes, ‘It’s on Rodrigues that Carlos Magdalena opens his new memoir, “The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World’s Rarest Species.” Magdalena, a senior botanical horticulturist at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, introduces readers to one of the island’s zombie plants, the café marron: a small, glossy-leaved tree that’s continuously covered with tiny white flowers. Long believed to be extinct, a single living specimen was discovered in the 1980s and quickly became a destination for both curious tourists and locals seeking it out as a folk remedy for hangovers and venereal disease. Read more…
NHBS Conservation Hub
Jan 2018
Carlos Magdalena is a botanical horticulturist at Kew Gardens, famous for his pioneering work with waterlilies and his never-tiring efforts to save some of the world’s rarest species from extinction. In his book, The Plant Messiah, Carlos shares stories of his travels and his work at Kew and, in doing so, opens our eyes to the delicate wonder of plants and the perils that many of them are now facing. We recently caught up with Carlos to chat about plant conservation, his views on extinction and lots more. Read more…
Botany One
Oct 2017
A review of ‘The Plant Messiah’ by Alun Salt. ‘If you’re looking to explain to someone how botany can be exciting, then The Plant Messiah by Carlos Magdalena is an excellent place to start.’ Read more…
52 Insights
Sep 2015
We met Carlos Magdalena, better known as ‘The Plant Messiah’, under the mystical circumstances of a total solar eclipse. In this environment we expected nothing short of magic, and that is exactly what we got. Behind the fantasy-like-glasshouses of Kew Gardens, we meet with this native Spaniard where horticulturalists work tirelessly around the clock studying the behaviour of plants from around the world. Spending an hour with Carlos is an enlightening experience.’ Read more…
The Guardian
Oct 2014
Why would someone steal Nymphaea thermarum the world’s rarest water lily? Read more…
The Guardian
Nov 2003
Back from the dead. The café marron tree, Ramosmania rodriguesi, faced extinction until a specialist team from Kew stepped in. Read more…
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