A tropical tree discovered in Cameroon's Ebo forest has been named after actor Leonardo DiCaprio, scientists from the British botanical garden in Kew said Thursday.
The actor was committed to the preservation of this tropical forest.
More than 200 species of plants and fungi were officially named in 2021 by researchers from Kew (west London) and their partners around the world.
Among these species, which range from a killer tobacco plant to an orchid that grows in total darkness, is Uvariopsis dicaprio.
This 4-meter-high tree with a trunk adorned with large yellow-green flowers was discovered in the Ebo forest, which is located north of Douala (south), the economic capital of Cameroon.
This tropical tree from the Ebo Forest in Cameroon belongs to the ylang-ylang family.
Scientists chose to name the tree 'Uvariopsis dicaprio' in honor of @LeoDiCaprio after he played an important part protecting the Ebo Forest (1/2) pic.twitter.com/w2zpxLiKSq
- Kew Gardens (@kewgardens) January 7, 2022
The forest still under threat
It was named after the actor who signed up in 2020 alongside the conservation organization Re: wild to prevent the authorization of exploitation for the purposes of production of timber of more than 68,000 hectares. of this forest. The Cameroonian government finally annulled this decision in August 2020, to the satisfaction of environmental defenders who had notably underlined the presence of primates threatened with extinction in this virgin forest.
"We really appreciated the support that Leo gave us in the campaign to protect Ebo last year, so it seemed appropriate to honor him in this way, by naming with his name a species unique to this forest", explained Dr Martin Cheek, principal investigator in the Africa team at Kew. “If the logging concession had been launched, we would probably have lost this species to timber extraction and slash-and-burn agriculture that usually follows logging concessions,” he added.
But Uvariopsis dicaprio is already considered critically endangered as the forest in which it is found is still threatened by logging, mining and conversion of land to plantations.
“As long as a species does not have a scientific name, assessing its risk of extinction is almost impossible, making protection against extinction and researching their properties incredibly difficult,” Kew points out.
Several species on the 2021 list are already considered threatened with extinction due to threats to their natural habitat and three are said to be already extinct.
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