News

Video: Scientists have named two plants after Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito

Julius and Vincent from Twins live on in plant form.
Julius and Vincent from Twins live on in plant form. Julius and Vincent from Twins live on in plant form.

Two plants have been named after Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito thanks to similarities to their characters in the film Twins.

Biologists at the Australian National University decided to name the two species of Daviesia pea flowers after the actors because, like Julius and Vincent in the 1988 movie, they are an unlikely pair of twins.

Emeritus Professor Mike Crisp, the lead researcher on the project, said: “We discover early on in the movie that the embryo split in two, but it didn’t split equally – all the purity and strength went into Schwarzenegger’s character Julius, while the dregs went into Vincent, DeVito’s character.”

Similarly, Daviesia schwarzenegger is a more robust plant while Daviesia devito is relatively small and weak.

As well as a nod to the movie, Prof Crisp said he wanted to name the plant for Schwarzenegger to honour his “leadership as Governor of California in pioneering the reduction of carbon emissions, and for advising the Australian Government to do the same”.

The pair are among 131 sub-species of Daviesia, also known as “egg and bacon peas”, Professor Crisp and his team have identified.

“Both species are at risk of extinction, because they appear to be confined to tiny remnant patches of bushland in a region that is largely cleared for wheat farming,” Prof Crisp said.

“These plants are ecologically important members of the communities of plants in which they grow. They’re nitrogen fixers, playing an important role in the Mallee region where the top soil is very denuded and the nutrients are depleted. It’s essential to have nitrogen fixers to replace those nutrients.”

Meanwhile, Triplets, a sequel to Twins starring Eddie Murphy as well as Schwarzenegger and DeVito, is on the way, according to Schwarzenegger.

He told Entertainment Weekly earlier this month: “We are just now working on Triplets. That is on top of the list, for me.”