What links Lady Gaga, Obama and Hitler? How famous people can give new species a bad name

Uma Thurman, top left, and, her namesake, the Yuman desert fringe-toed lizard (Uma rufopunctata); the cave beetle Anophtalmus hitleri, under threat from Nazi memorabilia collectors; Lady Gaga, and below, a fern gametophyte of the Gaga genus; Barack Obama and the sea slug Placida Barackobamai. Composite: Getty

When Lady Gaga held a Q&A on Reddit for a 2014 album release, there was one question that took the botany world by storm: what’s it like to have a genus of ferns named after you? “Pretty cool,” she responded, “especially since it’s an asexual fern.”

The 19 fern species of the Gaga genus are found from Bolivia to the south-west US, and were named after the singer partly for their G-A-G-A genetic sequence. “All sexless, judgeless,” she added. “How I wish to be.”