Alpine Thistles of the Rocky Mountains

In the high alpine tundra, the thistle stands tall against a landscape of low, matted plants. This project is designed to understand the evolution and geographic history of this iconic alpine group by uniting citizen scientists and researchers, and promote the importance of alpine thistles in the Rocky Mountains. In order to gather sufficient samples to study the evolution of alpine thistles, numerous collections from populations throughout the Rocky Mountains are needed. This is where YOU (the citizen scientist) come in!

This iNaturalist project is designed to show other citizen scientists where collections of alpine thistles have been made so that efforts are not unnecessarily duplicated. For each population of alpine thistle, 3 samples at least 10 meters apart must be collected. Because these plants are awfully spiny and most citizen scientists lack collecting permits, the entire plant will not be collected. Instead, for each of the 3 samples within the population, please collect 2 leaves and 1 head (not the entire inflorescence!) and place them in separate tea bags (one for each sample). Place the 3 tea bags (containing the 3 different samples from a single population) into a ziploc baggie with silica gel. Take lots of photographs of the thistle you are collecting, including a thistle selfie! Upload your thistle photographs to this iNaturalist page. Fill out the corresponding collection sheet and you are done! We will collect samples at the end of the season, and acknowledge each and every citizen scientist in talks and publications resulting from this research! less ↑