A species of new tropical tree, recently discovered by researchers from London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Gardens – named after the Hollywood star and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio. The new plant, which grows only in the Ebo rainforest (Ebo in Cameroon, Africa) was named Uvariopsis dicaprio, in honor of DiCaprio, who “took an important part in the effort to eliminate deforestation in the forest through social media.”
DiCaprio is the first species of plant to join the list of new species for 2022 of Kew Gardens. It rises to a height of four meters, and has bunches of bright yellow-green flowers on the stem. In 2020, international experts wrote a letter to the Cameroonian government documenting the incredible diversity of endangered forest species and plants.
The topic caught the attention of DiCaprio, who posted posts on the subject on social media to his millions of followers. The government later canceled plans to allow the deforestation, although the forest has not yet been officially designated a national park. Indeed, in an article published this weekend in the journal PeerJ – the new plant is described as a plant that is already in serious danger of extinction.
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