A newly discovered species of lichen — a plant-like growth that looks like moss or a dry leaf — has been named after President Obama.
Kerry Knudsen, lichen curator of the University of California, Riverside Herbarium, discovered the species in 2007 while doing a survey for lichen diversity on Santa Rosa Island in California.
"I named it Caloplaca obamae to show my appreciation for the president's support of science and science education," he said. "I made the final collections of C. obamae during the suspenseful final weeks of President Obama's campaign for the United States presidency."
C. obamae, the first species of any organism to be named in honor of President Obama, grows on soil and almost became extinct during the days of cattle ranching that spanned nearly 100 on Santa Rosa Island.
3 comments:
I'm trying hard to think of something nasty to say about Mr. President. Something about his relationship to fungus (but lichen is different from fungus, right?) or... hmm... I guess I can't quite get there tonight. And he might save us oodles on our mortgage, so maybe I shouldn't bad mouth him so quickly. Still, I never would've guessed he had his very own lichen.
is obamae correct latin though? or would it be obamai? i'm not sure obama is declined like a feminine noun. who knows? maybe it's like agricola - masculine but declined as feminine.
i think you pretty much answered your own question. femininity and masculinity might be misleading categorical names for those particular noun classes.
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