This is a story about a young girl named Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (aka Lady Gaga) whose profound effect on the world was only highlighted recently, when a FERN was named after her. That’s right. There are over 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta (ferns) and one of them is named after Gaga.
Botanists at Duke University announced is was naming a newly identified fern after the pop singer, specifically, Gaga germanotta.
The connection came in because of Gaga’s commitment to LGBT advocacy. Ferns reproduce by sending out spores of fluid gender, which grow up to be male, female or both. Biology professor Kathleen Pryer said: “We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defence of equality and individual expression. And as we started to consider it, the ferns themselves gave us more reasons why it was a good choice.” [via NY Times]
