BEIJING－Scientists have unraveled the genome sequence of the blue-petal water lily, an ancient flowering plant, shedding new light on Charles Darwin's "abominable mystery".

More than 300,000 species of flowering plants, or angiosperms, have emerged since their origin 200 million years ago, compared with 800 of its "brother" organisms, gymnosperms.

As one of the first diverging branches of flowering plants, water lilies may hold the key to explaining how flowering plants became dominant in ecosystems across the world, a problem termed an "abominable mystery" by Darwin.

In a study published online by the journal Nature last month, researchers acquired the high-quality genome sequence of the blue-petal water lily and found a whole-genome duplication event during the species' ancestor period.

The study showed that the duplication event contributed to the origin and wide distribution of water lilies, said the paper's first author Zhang Liangsheng, from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. The research results are key to revealing the origin and evolution of flowering plants, he added.

The researchers also studied the genes that form the color of blue-petal water lily, which may help gardeners cultivate blue flowers.