In an interesting turn of events, José Antonio Vázquez, a botanist at the University of Guadalajara, along with photographer Roberto Pedraza Ruiz have discovered two new species of the extremely rare magnolia flower.
The sequence of events that led to the discovery of this uncommon flower is quite fascinating. According to reports, Vázquez, while recently browsing through the varied images of flora and fauna on the Arkive website, came across a particular photograph shot by Roberto Pedraza Ruiz. The photo was identified as that of the endangered Magnolia dealbata (M. dealbata), one of the world's oldest flowering plants.
The scarcity and rarity of M. dealbata earned it the "endangered" status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. The IUCN states that the major threats to the decline of the M. dealbata are habitat destruction, poor species regeneration and timber production.
The picture of M. dealbata was taken in 2010 at Mexico's Serra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. However, something about it seemed off to Vázquez - it didn't look like M. dealbata. Raising concerns over the image, he got in touch with Ruiz. The two of them lived miles apart, but got together in this botanical venture.
Ruiz explained in an Arkive blog post that for Vázquez, the magnolia specimen in the photo was "unusual," so the botanist requested for more pictures. Ruiz then went back to the cloud forest and took more photos of the flowers and fruits of the magnolia trees. After several photo-taking trips to the forest and sending the images to Vázquez, he finally got the confirmation.
"I had photographed not only one but two completely new species of magnolias," said Ruiz.
Two completely new species of magnolia have thereby been discovered. The first one that was captured in the photograph had been named Magnolia rzedowskiana in honor of Jerzy Rzedowski, a well-renowned botanist in Mexico. The second newly discovered specimen is set to be named Magnolia pedrazae, after Ruiz who photographed it.
Lucie Muir, director of Wildscreen, was excited about these new findings and said they were thrilled when Ruiz told them that a new species of the rare flower had been identified because of a botanist browsing through Arkive's image gallery.
"It's amazing that new species are still being discovered and that on this occasion Arkive was part of the discovery story," Muir said.
Arkive is run by UK-based charity Wildscreen and is one of the world's largest online encyclopedias. It claims to be the ultimate multimedia guide to the world's endangered species, hosting more than 16,000 images of a wide range of plants and animals.
