Honoring Obama with a ground-level tribute
You could say Kerry Knudsen took a lichen to our new president.
Knudsen, a curator of the plant-like combination of fungi and algae at the UC Riverside Herbarium, named a new species of tough, orange-colored lichen, Caloplaca obamae, after Barack Obama.
“I supported him running for president, and while we were doing the collecting, the election was in its last couple of weeks,” Knudsen, 58, said Thursday. “It was real suspense, so we were talking about that every day.”
Coincidentally, the final peer review of the paper came back on Inauguration Day, and Knudsen finished the revisions while watching the event on television, sealing the deal. The paper was published a few weeks ago in the journal Opuscula Philolichenum, which Knudsen said means “little works of lichen lovers.”
Knudsen, who has studied lichens for about 10 years and roamed the California coast looking for them, said the naming decision wasn’t about publicity.
“After the Bush administration, I appreciated the change to an administration supporting science and science education,” Knudsen said.
The lichen has been found on only about 10 patches of soil, including an old horse or cattle pen, on Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park, Knudsen said. The largest was about 5 inches across.
“There are several endemic species of soil lichen in California,” Knudsen said. “Most are very, very rare. “
The Channel Islands are ideal for the organisms because they like damp, undisturbed environments.
In surveys the university has done in partnership with the National Park Service, researchers have cataloged more than 300 species on the island. Most had been identified before.
The history of cattle and sheep grazing on the island probably relegated the Obama lichen to a couple of secluded hide-outs for a long time, but since grazing stopped about 10 years ago, the lichen has had a chance to bounce back. This was the one trait in his lichen that Knudsen said reminded him of the president.
“It’s resilient,” the scientist said with a laugh. “As the election was going, it was neck-and-neck for a while. It’s almost like Obama was almost out of it there.” But, of course, Obama won.
A call to the White House press office seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Knudsen, who has named about 25 lichen and fungi in his day, said most species get their names from their structure or from places. Knudsen said other scientists have named three lichen after him, and he can assure the president that it is an honor.
“I think there’s a dung beetle named after Bush,” Knudsen said. “That’s definitely an insult.”
Actually, it was a slime-mold beetle, and the scientist seemed to want it to be an homage. But Knudsen realizes the honorees don’t necessarily see it that way.
“Once I met a lady whose husband’s specialty was lice, and he named a species of lice after her,” Knudsen said. “She didn’t quite like that.”
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