White and sky-blue in the high Andes: a new flower now carries Messi's name

Botanists describing a recently discovered plant in the Andes of central and southern Peru faced a naming decision, and they chose joy. The species — a sage with white and light-blue flowers — has been named Salvia messii, in honour of footballer Lionel Messi, because its colours echo the white and sky-blue stripes of Argentina's national team jerseys. The extra 'i' is not a typo: botanical convention adds it when a species is named after a person. The description appears in the October edition of the botany journal Phytotaxa. There is a serious thread inside the delight: the plant has a restricted distribution — it lives in a small area — and Phytotaxa lists it as endangered, which makes documenting and naming it a first, practical step toward protecting it. A famous name, it turns out, is also a conservation tool: far more people will now look twice at a fragile Andean flower than would have noticed an anonymous Latin binomial. Science, sport and national colours, meeting in a single new species — and a reminder of how much Andean biodiversity is still being discovered.

SDG 15 · Life on land