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Though 12-year-old Rachael Blackman likely isn’t familiar with either jazz trumpeter Hot Lips Page or Hotlips Houlihan of MASH fame, she still scored the winning entry in Natural England and the Guardian’s competition applying the lurid moniker to the fungus Octospora humosa.

"They looked a bit like lips and I thought the name suited it really well because of the bright orange colour," said Rachael. "It's exciting to know it will always be called hotlips."

The purpose of the contest is to bring greater awareness of the natural world by letting the public take a crack at giving popular names to overlooked species. Other winners included “Neptune’s heart,” the new name for England’s largest sea squirt and the “scarlet lady” for a particularly flashy sea slug. It’s hoped that this awareness and the new names will help conservationists in their efforts to save declining species as well.

Full story at Guardian.

Getting to know nature.

Photo credit: Thomas Læssøe/MycoKey/Natural England