Horticulturist Carlos Magdalena Is Saving Rare Flowers From Extinction - The New York Times

Carlos Magdalena, whose botanical adventures have shades of Indiana Jones, was a driving force in saving the world’s smallest water lily and finding the largest one. He has been called the “plant messiah.” By Silvana Paternostro Silvana Paternostro visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London to report this story. In Australia, he went plant hunting by helicopter and waded in crocodile-infested waters to watch a water lily bloom. In Mauritius, he grabbed a plant specimen off the ledge of a cliff. Last month, while looking for lilies in a Colombian tributary of the piranha-packed Orinoco River, he jumped from plank to plank in the pitch dark at 4 a.m. to get to a floating pontoon. “It’s not that I am that daring,” said Carlos Magdalena, a research horticulturalist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. “These situations just arise, and they are not like Superman extreme. Sometimes it’s more Peter Sellers than Indiana Jones.” Mr. Magdalena’s main responsibility at Kew Gardens

Carlos Magdalena, whose botanical adventures have shades of Indiana Jones, was a driving force in saving the world’s smallest water lily and finding the largest one. He has been called the “plant messiah.” By Silvana Paternostro Silvana Paternostro visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London to report this story. In Australia, he went plant hunting by helicopter and waded in crocodile-infested waters to watch a water lily bloom. In Mauritius, he grabbed a plant specimen off the ledge of a cliff. Last month, while looking for lilies in a Colombian tributary of the piranha-packed Orinoco R