A St. Louis plant has won a coveted heavyweight title.
In a weigh-off competition conducted over social media, a Missouri Botanical Garden water lily claimed victory over lilies around the world.
The Denver Botanic Gardens held the contest in late August, and the results were announced Tuesday. Gardens and zoos competed to stack weights on water lilies floating in their ponds. The St. Louis lily bested competition from 17 participants that included the New York Botanical Garden, Kew Botanical Garden in London, Chicago Botanical Garden and Atlanta Botanical Garden.
The Missouri Botanical Garden won first place by piling 142 pounds on a Victoria water lily pad floating in the pond across from the Climatron. At 5 feet across, it was the largest pad in the pool.
Garden horticulturists Claire Krofft and Greta Berg placed weights and sandbags weighing approximately 20 pounds each on the lily pad. They layered on the weights until the lily was holding 142.1 pounds.
Afterward, Krofft and Berg mused on how the lily was able to hold so much weight.
“Our pool is heated,” Berg stated on Instagram. “We have a little bit of a warmer climate.”
“We’re able to start them earlier and we had a really long hot summer, so the water lilies have been beefing up and prepping for this all year,” added Krofft.
The Missouri Botanical Garden has been growing Victoria water lilies since 1894, according to a statement. The pads, which can grow up to 10 feet in diameter, are abetted by the pond’s heating system.
