Ducks Unlimited is taking credit for managing wetlands that have produced a new species of white water lily in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
DU biologist Dave Clayton said it’s a rare occurrence to come across new species in North America, where most native plants have been housed and catalogued in herbariums for years.
“The significance is that evolution is still occurring,” he said of the new hybrid.
“Our management is conducive to species being sustained.”
The unnamed water lily was identified by U.S. botanist and water lily expert John Wiersema at sites in Saskatchewan in the Cumberland marshes and north of Hudson Bay. He is now confirming its presence north of Manitoba’s Minago River.
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The plant has hybridized from other plants over time and is fertile, both signs of the creation of a new species, said Clayton.
“Evolution is a process that takes a very long time,” he said.
” A new species is not something we come across often.”
There are a handful of known species of white and yellow water lilies in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The newest addition grows in deeper water than the others and among hard stemmed bulrushes.
Researchers plan to seek more information about the ecology of the new plant to better manage and sustain the species.
