Cirsium vinaceum
Encyclopedia
Cirsium vinaceum is a rare species of thistle
known by the common name Sacramento Mountains thistle. It is endemic to Otero County
, New Mexico
, in the United States, where it is known only from the Sacramento Mountains. The plant can be found in six canyon
systems in a southern section of this mountain range spanning about 32 kilometers. It is rare because it is limited to a specific type of mountain wetland
which is both naturally uncommon and threatened by a number of forces. The plant was federally listed as threatened in 1987.
s. The rosetted leaves are up to half a meter long and are mostly green, edged with yellow spines
. Each robust plant produces many flower heads
which hang on nodding branches. Flowering occurs during the summer. Each head is 3 to 5 centimeters wide and long and has an involucre of phyllaries
which are purple in color, curve outward, and taper into hard, toothed spines. The head bears many hairlike pinkish purple flowers. The fruit is an achene
with a plumelike pappus
up to 2 centimeters long. This thistle may resemble musk thistle (Carduus nutans) in appearance.
s and seeps
at 8000 feet elevation
. The plants root in water-filled cracks in the travertine
rock of the canyon streams, tolerating constant saturation. They sometimes grow in the streams themselves. The waterways are generally surrounded by meadow
habitat and Douglas-fir
forests. Other trees in the area include Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), New Mexico locust (Robinia neomexicana), and Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii). Many populations of the plant are located within the bounds of Lincoln National Forest
.
, road maintenance, and recreational activity. Livestock
range over much of the area and can drastically alter the land by trampling it. The plant once occurred in a wider range of mountain wetland habitat in this area, but now it is mainly limited to steep rocky canyons that are inaccessible to livestock. The effect of livestock on the habitat became clear when animals were excluded from a sensitive area and the thistle proliferated in their absence. Introduced plant species
in the area, such as musk thistle and Fuller's teasel
(Dipsacus sylvestris), outcompete the native plant. The teasel is perhaps the worst offender; it has been seen sprouting up in the middle of stands of the thistle.
could encourage it. A number of insect
s have been noted to feed on the plant, especially favoring the developing fruits in the seed heads. Noted insects include the gall fly Paracantha gentilis, the artichoke plume moth Platyptilia carduidactyla
, the bumble flower beetle Euphoria inda, and the stem borer weevil Lixus pervestitus. Large sections of several thistle populations have been damaged by one or more of these insects. The non-native flower head weevil Rhinocyllus conicus
has the potential to damage the thistle; it was purposely introduced to North America in an attempt to control various species of invasive
thistles which are noxious weeds, including musk thistle. The weevil was never released in New Mexico because of its potential to attack the native thistle; unfortunately, it has moved into the area on its own. So far its distribution is limited but it is expected to spread. The extent of the expected damage to the species is not known.
there were about 20 populations left for a total of up to 15,000 plants. It is sometimes difficult to determine the bounds of a population and to count the number of biological individuals within it. This plant, which grows in or near water, undergoes aquatic seed dispersal
; it drops seeds which then float downstream to root far from the mother plant. Depending on what defines a population in this particular species, what appears to be many separate patches of plants all the way down a particular waterway might be called a single population. This becomes important if a number of populations is a criterion for protection of the species. Furthermore, the plant often reproduces vegetatively
via rhizome
; what appears to be a large stand of a great many plants may truly be one genetic individual and its clones
. This becomes important in estimating the genetic diversity
of the species.
does not recommend a change to the plant's protection status.
Cirsium
Cirsium is a genus of perennial and biennial flowering plants in the Asteraceae, one of several genera known commonly as thistles. They are more accurately known as Plume thistles. These differ from other thistle genera in having feathered hairs to their achenes...
known by the common name Sacramento Mountains thistle. It is endemic to Otero County
Otero County, New Mexico
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*72.7% White*3.5% Black*6.7% Native American*1.2% Asian*0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*4.2% Two or more races*11.2% Other races*34.5% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, in the United States, where it is known only from the Sacramento Mountains. The plant can be found in six canyon
Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
systems in a southern section of this mountain range spanning about 32 kilometers. It is rare because it is limited to a specific type of mountain wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
which is both naturally uncommon and threatened by a number of forces. The plant was federally listed as threatened in 1987.
Characteristics
This thistle is a perennial herb which can grow to two meters in height. The plant is mostly purple in color, particularly the stems and inflorescenceInflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
s. The rosetted leaves are up to half a meter long and are mostly green, edged with yellow spines
Thorns, spines, and prickles
In botanical morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles are hard structures with sharp, or at least pointed, ends. In spite of this common feature, they differ in their growth and development on the plant; they are modified versions of different plant organs, stems, stipules, leaf veins, or hairs...
. Each robust plant produces many flower heads
Head (botany)
The capitulum is considered the most derived form of inflorescence. Flower heads found outside Asteraceae show lesser degrees of specialization....
which hang on nodding branches. Flowering occurs during the summer. Each head is 3 to 5 centimeters wide and long and has an involucre of phyllaries
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...
which are purple in color, curve outward, and taper into hard, toothed spines. The head bears many hairlike pinkish purple flowers. The fruit is an achene
Achene
An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate and indehiscent...
with a plumelike pappus
Pappus (flower structure)
The pappus is the modified calyx, the part of an individual disk, ray or ligule floret surrounding the base of the corolla, in flower heads of the plant family Asteraceae. The pappus may be composed of bristles , awns, scales, or may be absent. In some species, the pappus is too small to see...
up to 2 centimeters long. This thistle may resemble musk thistle (Carduus nutans) in appearance.
Habitat
This plant's native habitat is a network of streamStream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
s and seeps
Seep (hydrology)
A Seep is a moist or wet place where water, usually groundwater, reaches the earth's surface from an underground aquifer.-Description:Seeps are usually not of sufficient volume to be flowing beyond their above-ground location. They are part of the limnology-geomorphology system...
at 8000 feet elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
. The plants root in water-filled cracks in the travertine
Travertine
Travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs, especially hot springs. Travertine often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, and cream-colored varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot...
rock of the canyon streams, tolerating constant saturation. They sometimes grow in the streams themselves. The waterways are generally surrounded by meadow
Meadow
A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...
habitat and Douglas-fir
Douglas-fir
Douglas-fir is one of the English common names for evergreen coniferous trees of the genus Pseudotsuga in the family Pinaceae. Other common names include Douglas tree, and Oregon pine. There are five species, two in western North America, one in Mexico, and two in eastern Asia...
forests. Other trees in the area include Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), New Mexico locust (Robinia neomexicana), and Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii). Many populations of the plant are located within the bounds of Lincoln National Forest
Lincoln National Forest
The Lincoln National Forest is a protected national forest in the State of New Mexico in the southwestern United States. It was established in 1902 and covers 1,103,828 acres...
.
Environmental
The thistle depends on streams and seeps for its survival. This habitat is threatened with destruction via the diversion of water. The wetland habitat can be damaged by loggingLogging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
, road maintenance, and recreational activity. Livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
range over much of the area and can drastically alter the land by trampling it. The plant once occurred in a wider range of mountain wetland habitat in this area, but now it is mainly limited to steep rocky canyons that are inaccessible to livestock. The effect of livestock on the habitat became clear when animals were excluded from a sensitive area and the thistle proliferated in their absence. Introduced plant species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
in the area, such as musk thistle and Fuller's teasel
Dipsacus fullonum
Dipsacus fullonum, syn. Dipsacus sylvestris, is a species of flowering plant known by the common names Fuller's teasel and wild teasel. It is native to Eurasia and North Africa, but it is known in the Americas, southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand as an introduced species and often a noxious...
(Dipsacus sylvestris), outcompete the native plant. The teasel is perhaps the worst offender; it has been seen sprouting up in the middle of stands of the thistle.
Competition
A 2010 update suggests that direct plant-plant competition is not a severe problem at this time, but that climate changeClimate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
could encourage it. A number of insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s have been noted to feed on the plant, especially favoring the developing fruits in the seed heads. Noted insects include the gall fly Paracantha gentilis, the artichoke plume moth Platyptilia carduidactyla
Platyptilia carduidactyla
The Artichoke Plume Moth is a moth of the family Pterophoridae. It is found in North America, from Mexico north into the United States....
, the bumble flower beetle Euphoria inda, and the stem borer weevil Lixus pervestitus. Large sections of several thistle populations have been damaged by one or more of these insects. The non-native flower head weevil Rhinocyllus conicus
Rhinocyllus conicus
Rhinocyllus conicus is a species of true weevil. It is best known as a controversial agent of biological pest control which has been used against noxious thistles in the genera Carduus, Cirsium, Onopordum, and Silybum....
has the potential to damage the thistle; it was purposely introduced to North America in an attempt to control various species of invasive
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
thistles which are noxious weeds, including musk thistle. The weevil was never released in New Mexico because of its potential to attack the native thistle; unfortunately, it has moved into the area on its own. So far its distribution is limited but it is expected to spread. The extent of the expected damage to the species is not known.
Extent
At the time the plant was added to the endangered species listEndangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...
there were about 20 populations left for a total of up to 15,000 plants. It is sometimes difficult to determine the bounds of a population and to count the number of biological individuals within it. This plant, which grows in or near water, undergoes aquatic seed dispersal
Seed dispersal
Seed dispersal is the movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant...
; it drops seeds which then float downstream to root far from the mother plant. Depending on what defines a population in this particular species, what appears to be many separate patches of plants all the way down a particular waterway might be called a single population. This becomes important if a number of populations is a criterion for protection of the species. Furthermore, the plant often reproduces vegetatively
Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in plants. It is a process by which new individuals arise without production of seeds or spores...
via rhizome
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
; what appears to be a large stand of a great many plants may truly be one genetic individual and its clones
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
. This becomes important in estimating the genetic diversity
Genetic diversity
Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary....
of the species.
Protected status
When the thistle's federal protection status was reviewed in 2010, it was determined that there were fewer sites occupied by the plant, fewer populations, and usually fewer stems or individuals at known survey sites. Most of the same threats occur now that occurred at the time of listing. The Fish and Wildlife ServiceUnited States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats...
does not recommend a change to the plant's protection status.