Newly Discovered Plant Named After American Rocker Jimi Hendrix

American Rocker Jimi Hendrix will always be remembered for amazing career as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. But now he's going to be remembered as a rare and succulent plant as well.

Botanists just discovered a plant and they named it Dudleya hendrixii. It can only be found in Baja California, Mexico, in an area known as the Punta Colonet or Colonet Peninsula. D. Hendrixii looks thin and stalky and grows up to a foot or 0.3 meters tall. It has succulent leaves and flowers in colors of pink and white. This according to the co-author of the study Mark Dodero. He discovered the rare plant when he was in graduate school at San Diego State University. Now he works as senior biologist at RECON Environmental at San Diego, an environmental consulting firm.

Together with co-author Stephen McCabe who is a retired botanist from the University of California, Sta. Cruz decided to name the plant in honor of Jimi Hendrix. This idea came to mind when Dodero remembered he was listening to Hendrix's hit song Voodo Child the moment he discovered the plant.

The researchers also said that D. Hendrixii is summer deciduous. This means that it dies in the summer and comes back during the fall season. Despite it being a new discovery, it needs the help in order to be preserved. Currently, its habitat that happens to be just a couple of acres is being threatened by farmers, grazing, off-road traffic, not to mention housing developments, as published by livescience.com.

The Punta Colony may soon be the location of a major shipping port. This would further endanger the area's fragility, according to the researchers. For the newfound species to be protected, they are urging the Mexican government and other conservation groups for its protection.

Interestingly, D. hendrixii is not the only species named after musicians. For example, the damsefly Umma gumma is named after the Pink Floyd double album Ummagumma. This is the British slang for sex. And the tarantula Aphonopelma johnnycash is named after singer/songwriter Johnny Cash. This is because the spider's dark color reminded the researchers of the legendary singer's head-to-toe-black get-up. The new findings can be read in the October issue of the journal Madrono.

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