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A rose by any other name would be just as sweet but a tree by any other name would not be this hot.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s love for the environment now has the ultimate commemoration: a tree named after him.
Researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the United Kingdom, discovered a tree — and named it Uvariopsis dicaprio — in the Cameroon forest, which is hailed for its biodiversity.
The scientists wanted to honor DiCaprio’s ecological endeavors to save the rainforest, finding it fitting to name a tree after the actor.
“We think he was crucial in helping to stop the logging of the Ebo forest,” Kew botanist Martin Cheek told the BBC.
Logging, which refers to the process of cutting and transporting trees, increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, contributing to climate change.
Conservationists and researchers alike were aghast when large portions of the Ebo forest, one of the largest rainforests in central Africa, were going to be logged.
In 2020, DiCaprio, 47, campaigned to protect the forest, home to the Banen people and a diverse population of plants and animals. He posted appeals on social media, linking to a petition for his followers to sign.
DiCaprio’s efforts aided international experts, who wrote a letter to the Cameroonian government detailing the endangered species of both animals and plants that reside in the forest.
Later, the government revoked the logging plans for the forest, which has yet to be named a national park.
The “dicaprio” tree — a small, tropical evergreen with yellow flowers sprouting from the trunk — is the first plant officially named by Kew researchers this year. It’s a member of the ylang ylang plant family, and is already classified “critically endangered.”
Until a species has a scientific name, researchers have a difficult time assessing its risk of extinction, making protecting species impossible.
In 2021, over 200 plans and fungi worldwide were named by Kew scientists and collaborators, according to the BBC, and several of those new species are extinct or threatened because of climate change.
Cheek told the BBC that last year’s discoveries are a reminder that time is running out to find new species and protect them before extinction.
“There are still thousands of plant species and maybe millions of fungal species out there that we don’t know about,” he said. “This natural habitat that they’re growing in — especially forests, but other habitats, too — is increasingly and more rapidly being destroyed by us humans without knowing what’s there.”
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