UC Riverside scientist names lichen for President Obama

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 today. “It was real suspense so we were talking about that every day.”

Coincidentally, the final peer review of the paper came back on Obama’s 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 all over the California coast looking for them, said the naming decision wasn’t about seeking publicity.

“After the Bush administration, I appreciated the change to an administration supporting science and science education,” said Knudsen.

The lichen has so far 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 patch was about five inches across.

“There are several endemic species of soil lichen in California,” Knudsen said. “Most are very, very rare. “

The Channel Islands are great environments for the plant-like 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 of them 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 around 10 years ago, the lichen have 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,’” Knudsen said with a laugh. “As the election was going, it was neck and neck for a while. It almost like Obama was almost out of it there.” But, of course, Obama won.

Knudsen, who has named about 25 lichen and fungi in his day, said most species get their names from places or their structure. Knudsen said other scientists have named three lichen after him, and he can tell the president 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 actually 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.”

-- Jia-Rui Chong

Photo: Caloplaca obamae growing on Pleistocene soil on Santa Rosa Island. Credit: J. C. Lendemer.

Comments

[Gore]

So obvious ... Yet another example of an overpaid career government employee supporting the president who in turn makes sure for continued salary and benefits at the expense of the people who create wealth and make this country great.

[Bob]

File this nonsense story under "Two birds of a feather..." What a nice story it could have been, but instead, it turns into a political Bush-bashing article---what a perfect article fit for print and approval by the LA Times editors.

As a graduate of UCR, this is one of the reasons why I was so happy to leave mini-Berkeley and why I will never, ever donate a single penny back to them. Like most universities, it is permeated with political idealogues and ultra-left wingers. My own personal battle with this was when a feminist and very left wing professor accused me of plagarism when I wrote a pro-legal immigration paper. What ever happened to a diversity of intellectual thoughts and views, liberals?

[mschliebs]

Fungus and algae. Yup.

[Winfield J. Abbe]

Dear Professor Kerry Knudsen: Since you support Obama, could or would you explain to the rest of the public why he refuses to perform a simple act that every other U.S. citizen performs daily: produce his true birth certificate for all to view. Instead, he has a battery of lawyers around the country seeking to obstruct anyone from viewing it and continuing the full military force and power of government to keep it hidden, under secret wraps. What does he fear in producing it? Evidently it would confirm that he is not in fact a natural born citizen of the U.S., as demanded by the U.S. Constitution, and that if exposed, he would be immediately removed from the office of president which he would have held fraudulently and without justification. There is presently a national petition with hundreds of thousands of signatures on it. Numerous lawsuits have been filed in numerous courts only to have gutless, cowardly and politically correct judges dismiss them without ruling on the merits and permitting the process of discovery. All this is a patent failure of our system. The longer this goes on the worse the festering wound becomes. The mainstream media including the Los Angeles Times have also sold out the American People on this vital issue.
How about it professor? Would you approve another professor at UCR if they had a falsified vita? Are you for truth or coverup of the truth? The Motto of the University of California is "Let There Be Light" or " Fiat Lux": in Latin. Is our president a natural born American or just another illegal immigrant?

Winfield J. Abbe
A.B., Physics, UC Berkeley, 1961
M.S., Physics, California State University at Los Angeles, 1962
Ph.D., Physics, UC Riverside, 1966
Athens, Georgia formerly of Sierra Madre, California (1943-1966)
Reference: www.wnd.com or World Net Daily.com.

[gerrrg]

The tag line should be changed from, "UC Riverside scientist names lichen for President Obama" to, "UC Riverside scientist names lichen after President Obama".