Lady Gaga Gets Fern Species Named After Her—Check Out the Resemblance

Singer is honored by Duke University botanists, who found similarities between the pop star and the plants

Lady Gaga's little monsters obviously include science monsters, as well.

Botanists at Duke University have honored the pop star by naming a new genus of ferns, and an impressive 19 species within the genus, after her.

"We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defense of equality and individual expression," Kathleen Pryer, director of Duke's herbarium and professor of biology, said.

"And as we started to consider it, the ferns themselves gave us more reasons why it was a good choice."

At one stage of its life, the new genus Gaga has "somewhat fluid definitions of gender" and seems to (as much as a plant can) resemble a costume the singer wore at the 2010 Grammy Awards. What's more, members of the new genus also bear a distinct DNA sequence that spells out, yep, GAGA.

Names of the new ferns, which can be found in Central and South America, Mexico, Arizona and Texas, include Gaga germanotta—a nod to the artist's real name, Stefani Germanotta—and  Gaga monstraparva, which translates to "monster little."