Lady Gaga's has been named after a new species of fern. (Creative Commons)

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

For example, the fern, which is found in Arizona, Texas, Mexico and Central and South America, “has somewhat fluid definitions of gender,” reproducing by spores that can grow into plants that may be male, female or bisexual, the university said in a news release.

It also reported that a graduate student analyzing the ferns had found the sequence GAGA in its DNA base pairs. Plus, it did not hurt that the scientists were Lady Gaga fans: “We think that her second album, ‘Born this Way,’ is enormously empowering,” Dr. Pryer said in the statement, “especially for disenfranchised people and communities like LGBT, ethnic groups, women — and scientists who study odd ferns!”)

The group of scientists has named two species within the genus “Gaga germanotta,” based on Lady Gaga’s real name, Stefani Germanotta, and “Gaga monstraparva,” a nod to the singers’ fans, whom she calls “little monsters.”

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