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July 19, 2007 : Cirsium peckii
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Keywords: Asteraceae | Cirsium peckii Henderson | Steens Mountain, Oregon, USA
This is the second thistle from western North America to be featured on BPotD recently that is endemic to only one mountain or small mountainous area. Cirsium peckii, or Steens Mountain thistle, can only be found on Steens Mountain or the nearby Pueblo Mountains of Oregon. Cirsium clokeyi, on BPotD nearly two months ago, is endemic to the Spring Mountains of Nevada. When a pattern like this becomes noticeable, it is certain to catch the attention of botanists – and it has. Dr. Dean Kelch of the Baldwin Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, has investigated these narrowly-distributed endemics within Cirsium. Despite having low genetic diversity (by measure of rDNA), the Cirsium display an unusual amount of ecological diversity. The conclusions? Cirsium in North America have either undergone a rapid ecological radiation (meaning new species have evolved quickly to fill ecological niches) or the rDNA of thistles is highly conserved across species (meaning that as species of thistles evolve, this particular type of DNA does not change as much as it would typically be expected to do given the patterns in other plant groups). See: Kelch, DG and Baldwin, B. 2003. Phylogeny and ecological radiation of New World thistles (Cirsium, Cardueae - Compositae) based on ITS and ETS rDNA sequence data. Molecular Ecology. 12: 141-151.
Photographs of Cirsium peckii in flower can be seen here and here.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at July 19, 2007 6:45 AM
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Posted by: van at July 19, 2007 9:17 AM
I found this plant to very interesting because of learning of only a small area Crisium is found. We have thisles in New England with very different leaves. Thank you so much . I love the picture and to know about it is very nice.
Margaret-Rae
Posted by: Margaret-Rae Davis at July 19, 2007 3:40 PM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.
What a beautiful plant. Those Asters are certainly adaptable.