American actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s name can’t be found on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yet, but as of this month, it can be found in a forest in Cameroon.
Botanists at London’s Royal Botanic Kew Gardens named a new tree species after the Oscar-winning actor, who in 2020 was outspoken about stopping logging plans in the Ebo Forest in Cameroon, where the new species, now named Uvariopsis dicaprio, is located.
“We very much appreciated the support Leo gave us in campaigning to protect Ebo last year so it seemed fitting to honour him in this way, naming a species unique only to this forest, after him,” Dr. Martin Cheek, a scientist at RBG Kew, said in a statement. “Had the logging concession gone ahead, we would have likely lost this species to timber extraction and slash and burn agriculture that usually follows logging concessions.”
