Scientists name discovered tree in honor of Leonardo DiCaprio

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio received a curious tribute, announced by the Kew Botanical Garden this Thursday (6). In addition to the screens, he is also famous for his role as an environmentalist, which earned him a tree named after him.

Scientists at the Kew Botanical Garden, one of the largest in England, and at the National Herbarium of Cameroon have named a new tree discovered by science as Uvariopsis dicaprio. The plant was found in the Ebo rainforest, in Cameroon, and is from the same family as the ylang-ylang, it is four meters tall and shows yellow leaves on its trunk.

The name was chosen because of DiCaprio’s support for the campaign to revoke a concession for logging in the Ebo forest in February 2020. The concession was eventually canceled in April 2020 by the country’s president.

The Ebo Forest is one of the largest preserved rainforests in the world, which, according to experts, “was relatively unknown to botanical science.” Currently, scientists from all over the world are working on cataloging and researching local species.

A Uvariopsis dicaprio is the first addition to Kew’s list of new discoveries in 2022, also published in the scientific journal Peer J. It has already been added to the list of critically endangered species as it only occurs in a very specific location, which is not protected from logging, transformation into plantations and mining.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s work on environmental issues has gained notoriety in recent years, including in Brazil, due to exchanges of barbs with Jair Bolsonaro (PL) on the preservation of the Amazon.

In 2019, the actor criticized the forest fires. Police investigations at the time explored the possibility that some fires were deliberately caused by firefighters from Pará to sell images in exchange for donations. DiCaprio had donated an amount, which had no proven link to the investigation, to the environmental protection NGO WWF.

President Bolsonaro accused him in a live of having donated money to arson in the Amazon rainforest. The actor denied involvement and criticized, in a statement, the leader’s position. Leonardo DiCaprio já usou o Twitter para impulsionar campanhas que questionavam entidades que lucram com políticas ambientais de pouca efetividade na Amazônia, usando a hashtag “#DefundBolsonaro (“Tire o financiamento de Bolsonaro”)”.

In early 2021, when Democrat Joe Biden assumed the presidency in the United States, DiCaprio, along with several American and Brazilian artists, sent a letter asking the new leader not to condone Bolsonaro and his environmental policies, which he considers harmful to the preservation of the Amazon.