Long after the triumphs and failures of his administration are forgotten, Barack Obama's legacy will survive — in lichen.
University of California, Riverside lichen curator Kerry Knudsen named the newly-discovered Caloplaca obamae after the President Obama. It's the first species named after him.
"I made the final collections of *C. obamae *during the suspenseful final weeks of President Obama's campaign for the United States presidency," said Knudsen in a press release accompanying the lichen's description in Opuscula Philolichenum. "This paper was written during the international jubilation over his election."
Knudsen made his discovery on California's Santa Rosa Island, where grazing by non-native cattle nearly drove the now-presidential lichen to extinction. Ranching is no longer practiced on the island, and it's expected that non-native deer and elk will eventually be removed, eliminating the last threats to C. obamae's future.
If having an ochre-colored, fungus-algae symbiont named after you seems a backhanded compliment, then spare a second thought for these unappreciated organisms. Lichen can absorb up to 35 times their body weight in water, survive for years in a drought, and flourish from Antarctica to the equator.
Previous presidentially inspired species include a trifecta of slime-mold beetles named Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi and Agathidium rumsfeldi.
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*Citation: "Caloplaca obamae, a new species from Santa Rosa Island,
California." By Kerry Knudsen. Opuscula Philolichenum, Vol. 6, 2009.*Image: University of California, Riverside
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