ShareThisPolitically speaking, no moss grows under the feet of President Obama.
But under his name -- that's a different story.
A California expert has decided to honor the new chief executive by naming after him a newly discovered species of lichen he collected on Santa Rosa Island, off California's southern coast.
Henceforth, said lichen will be known as Caloplaca obamae.
Kerry Knudsen, a 58-year-old retired construction worker, holds no academic degrees, but is a self-taught expert on the plant-like growths that hug rocks, rocky soils and trees, usually resembling a dry leaf or moss.
He's been a volunteer botanist with the University of California-Riverside since 2004, serving as lichen curator for the university's herbarium, which has a collection of more than 10,000 lichens.
Knudsen said he named the new species for Obama "to show my appreciation for the president's support of science and science education."
The White House did not return a call for comment.
Knudsen said he first found the lichen on Santa Rosa, which sits off the coast of Ventura County and is part of the Channel Islands National Park, while doing a survey of lichen diversity in 2007. He made the final sample collection of the plant shortly before the presidential election.
He began writing the paper describing the new species right after Obama's historic victory. It was the latest of more than 70 scientifically reviewed papers he has published on lichens and related species.
Santa Rosa Island is known for its plant and animal diversity. It is home to six plant species found nowhere else in the world
Like many plant species on Santa Rosa, C. obamae was severely stressed during the 150 years that sheep, cattle and human-imported deer and elk were free to graze the island.
Now, with the domestic animals removed by the National Park Service -- soon to be followed by the deer and elk -- Knudsen said it's likely that the new species -- and more than 300 others found on Santa Rosa -- will fully recover across the island.
E-mail Lee Bowman at bowmanl(at)shns.com. SHNS correspondent Michael Collins contributed to this story.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
