By Philippa Warr, Wired UK

An entire genus of ferns has been named after pop star Lady Gaga.

[partner id="wireduk" align="right"]The genus comprises nineteen separate species of fern which can be found in Central and South America, Mexico, Arizona and Texas and which carry within their DNA the sequence GAGA – guanine, adenine, guanine, adenine.

"We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defense of equality and individual expression," said Duke University biology professor Kathleen Pryer. "And as we started to consider it, the ferns themselves gave us more reasons why it was a good choice."

According to Duke Today, the reasoning included Lady Gaga's custom Armani Prive stage attire (reminiscent of "the bisexual reproductive stage of the ferns"), her "paws up" salute to her fans ("the way the fern extends its new leaves into a clenched little ball") and, of course, the GAGA DNA sequence.

While the majority of the newly christened genus are reclassifications of existing species, two are entirely new to science – Gaga germanotta from Costa Rica, which takes Gaga's original surname, and Gaga monstraparva, which references her fans, the "Little Monsters".

As Pryer told Duke Today, "We think that [Gaga's] second album, Born this Way, is enormously empowering, especially for disenfranchised people and communities like LGBT, ethnic groups, women – and scientists who study odd ferns!"

Source: Wired.co.uk