14 DAY TRIAL // News from the United Kingdom says that, last week, a very rare plant was stolen from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in London.
The plant in question is one of the rarest waterlilies in the world. It is also the smallest, meaning that its pads can grow to measure just 1 centimeter (roughly 0.4 inches) in diameter.
Its official name is nymphaea thermarum, and specialists explain that it has been extinct in the wild since about the year 2008.
By the looks of it, wild representative of this species fell off the biodiversity map due to the fact that the plant's natural habitat in Rwanda was destroyed by expanding agricultural lands.
This very rare plant was eventually saved from going extinct altogether by being grown from seed at the Kew Gardens.
The facility now regularly produces a new generation of such waterlilies, and can accommodate for about 50 representatives of this species at one time.
Interestingly enough, nymphaea thermarum plant does not thrive in water, as do other species of its kind, but in damp mud.
Metro tells us that the theft occurred last Thursday. Authorities are not yet able to say when exactly the plant went missing, but they suspect that whoever took it did so between 8.30 a.m. and 2.55 p.m.
The rare waterlily was kept in a shallow pound, and police officers say that the person who stole it either simply pulled it out of its environment, or dug it out.
“At some time between 8.30am and 2.55pm on Thursday a Nymphaea Thermarum was stolen from the Princess of Wales Conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew,” a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told the press, as cited by The Telegraph.
Furthermore, “Officers have been informed that the plant would have had to have been dug, or pulled up, from a shallow water lily pond.”
People who might have any information concerning this theft are asked to contact authorities without delay. As the spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police put it, “Police are appealing for information to trace a rare plant that has been stolen from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.”