Botany at bay

WITH a maximum height of 4mm, Ledermanniella lunda is one of the smallest flowering plants known to science. Its existence was reported to the world in 2015 by an expedition run by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which had found it growing on rocks in a set of rapids on the Luachimo river, in Angola. It may, though, hold another record—for the swiftest passage from discovery to extinction. Satellite images show that the water at the site of its discovery has turned the colour of milky coffee as a result of diamond-mining upstream. Worse, a recently refurbished hydroelectric dam may by now have flooded those rapids.

Ledermanniella lunda is, or was, tiny and inoffensive. In contrast, another of last year’s discoveries is the stuff of nightmares—a carnivorous plant 1½ metres tall. Drosera magnifica (pictured) is a giant sundew, part of a group that trap insects and other unfortunate small animals on leaves covered with droplets of sweet and sticky goo. It is possibly the first botanical find made via Facebook. Its discoverer, Paulo Gonello of São Paulo University, in Brazil, saw its picture, taken by smartphone, on his news feed.