Carlos Magdelena

Carlos Magdelena

Carlos’ life as a dedicated Nymphaeaophile, or as he says in his book, “a waterlily addict”, began as a child with a small pond dug by his father in his parents’ yard in Astaria, in northern Spain. His first waterlily, a white foundling, quickly filled the pond, and further captivated the young Carlos.

Carlos’ special status stems from his nearly unique ability to rescue highly endangered plants from oblivion.  Shrubs and trees from distant lands and isolated islands that were on the very brink of extinction, with which others had vainly struggled for years, were rescued from extinction because of Carlos’ special insights and capabilities.

He has also worked to sort out the Australian Nymphoides spp., and to gain further understanding of the sub-genus Anecphya, a diverse and little understood group of uniquely beautiful waterlilies.

The crowning moment came when Carlos, through an epiphany of monumental importance to our little world, figured out, or by what might even be called, divined, how to propagate the diminutive Rwandan waterlily, N. thermarum, which was thought to have been extinct in the wild, but which was kept in the Botanical Garden in Bonn, Germany.   Carlos learned how to grow seedlings from this plant which is now familiar lovely little bright green plants that many of us are thrilled to see in our own collections.

Thermarum came to the world’s attention with the news that somebody had stolen specimens of the plant from the display at Kew.  Naturally, Kew was upset about having been robbed of so special a plant, and the widely disseminated news brought the concept of the sanctity of world class plant collections to the broader attention of the world.  Carlos has since been an advocate of the need of these collections to preserve the rare plants, and of the respect to be shown to them by people of conscience and concern for their future.  For that, he is to be commended. Carlos’ efforts have pointed out just how vulnerable many plants are because of mankind’s interference with the natural order of things, and of how all of us must work to preserve what we have on this marvelous planet that we call home.