If you have been of Spongebob Squarepants fan ever since the Nick started to air the nonsensical yet quite chucklesome show, then you need to meet this interesting mushroom that was named after the funny cartoon character, one referred to as the "Spongebob Mushroom."
Discovered in Sarawak, Malaysia in 2010, the said mushroom was said to have an appearance resembling or reminiscent of Spongebob Squarepants, thus, it was named 'Spongiforma squarepantsii.'
"It's just like a sponge with these big hollow holes," Dennis Desjardin of San Francisco State University said in a statement. "When it's wet and moist and fresh, you can wring water out of it and it will spring back to its original size. Most mushrooms don't do that."
According to the study, which was published in the journal Mycologia in May 2011, the "Spongebob" mushroom has a bright orange hue and it smells "vaguely fruity or strongly musty." Meanwhile, the only one other 'Spongiforma' genus species, located in central Thailand, possesses a different color and odor.
Desjardin and his colleagues used a scanning electron microscope to examine the mushroom and they discovered that it has spongy features such as the spore-producing area of the mushroom that resembles "a seafloor carpeted in tube sponges."
Although this ingenious naming of a fungus after a cartoon character sounds so peculiar, it is actually not the first time that scientists had resorted to go creative and use a cartoon character as reference to the species epithet of animals and plants. In 2010, scientists in western Colombia named a new beaked toad with long, pointy, snout-like nose after Mr. Burns, the nefarious villain in 'The Simpsons.'
Interestingly, scientists have also used famous personalities as reference in naming certain species, according to National Geographic. There's 'Caloplaca obamae' - a symbiotic pairing of algae and fungus of the lichens species - named after President Barack Obama. Meanwhile, Lady Gaga was the inspiration for a genus of 'Gaga' fern while Beyoncé was the inspiration behind the name of a fly with a golden rump called 'Scaptia [Plinthina] beyonceae.'
A beetle was named after Arnold Schwarzenegger due to its enlarged middle femora resembling that of Arnold's muscular build. Then, there's 'Agra katewinsletae' from Kate Winslet during the peak of the Titanic movie. Finally, there's 'Agra liv' in honor of Liv Tyler for her role in Armageddon.
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