Uvariopsis dicaprio - The plant named after Leonardo DiCaprio.
- bioworld090
- Jun 26, 2022
- 1 min read
Image Credit: BBC News
A tropical evergreen tree is recently discovered in 2022 and named after the actor and environmentalist, Leonardo DiCaprio.
The tree Uvariopsis dicaprio belongs to the genus Uvariopsis and is endemic to the Ebo forest in Cameroon. It is so far only known from the lower submontane forest(at elevations of around 850 meters).
The dicaprio tree grows around 4m in length and has long leaves measuring 15 cm in length. The bright yellow-green flowers have free petals and are cauliflorous(arise from the main stem of a plant or trunk of a tree). The flowers bloom from late March to early April. The bright yellow-green colour of the flowers suggests that it attracts nocturnal pollinators like moths.
The botanists at Royal Botanic Garden, Kew named it after DiCaprio as they wanted to honour him for his efforts to draw attention to threats that logging can pose to various rare species of Ebo Forest.
This tree is provisionally critically endangered and only 50 individuals have been found till now. The tree may go extinct soon as its habitat is continuously threatened by logging, deforestation for oil palm plantations, and mining.
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