Annliya George
In addition to holding an Oscar, a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and three Golden Globe awards Leonardo DiCaprio now has a tree named after him.
A group of international scientists at the Royal Botanic Kew Gardens and the National Herbarium of Cameroon, have honoured the Hollywood actor and environmental activist by naming a novel tropical tree species after him. This is also an addition to the list of the strange and spectacular plants discovered and named by scientists over the course of the past 12 months.
Uvariopsis dicaprio
The uvariopsis dicaprio is from the Ebo Forest, Cameroon. The uvariopsis dicaprio is part of the ylang-ylang family. It is also a critically endangered species given that it is in an unprotected forest habitat that is often exposed to dangers like logging and mining. It is four meters tall and has yellow and green flowers on the trunk. As per a press statement that announced the tropical tree, it is the first new plant to be officially named by Kew scientists in 2022 and has been added to the new species list at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The Ebo Forest is home to half of the Yabassi Key Biodiversity Area, and it is the ancestral region of over 40 local communities. It is also the home of gorillas, forest elephants and chimpanzees, according to Key Biodiversity Areas.
It is common for plants to be named after scientists who have shown utmost devotion to a field of research. The team decided to name the species after DiCaprio to honour him for the efforts he has taken to protect the rainforest from logging. When the Yabassi Key Biodiversity Area was under threat from a logging concession last year, DiCaprio had drawn attention to it in a tweet on his verified Twitter account in August 2020.
Cameroon’s Ebo Forest, and all of the incredible animals that live there, are in trouble. This includes Forest Elephants, Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and so many others. Let's help #SaveEboForest: https://t.co/mxWNcZ65QE @Global_Wildlife @sdzglobal pic.twitter.com/PWiAW3LhFx
— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) August 6, 2020
After almost one month, the Cameroonian government had withdrawn the logging concession. Martin Cheek from the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, his colleagues and the researchers at the National Herbarium of Cameroon and the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon have analysed photos and specimens of the tree, found in Cameroon’s tropical Ebo forest. They also concluded that this tree was unknown to science and also among local communities.
“We very much appreciated the support Leo gave us in campaigning to protect Ebo last year so it seemed fitting to honour him in this way, naming a species unique only to this forest after him,” said Martin Cheek in a statement announcing the findings, which were published in the scientific journal Peer J on Thursday.
Featured image courtesy of World Economic Forum on Flickr. Image license found here. No changes or alterations were made to this image.
