How seeds from the past are saving a unique flower of the Great Lakes
Pitcher’s thistle photographed in Great Lakes Coastal dune habitat. ANDREW BOWKER/USFWS
Noel Pavlovic is an ecologist with the Great Lakes Science Center at the Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station in Indiana.
LANSING
More than 30 years ago, a group of scientists planted 4,200 seeds of the rare Pitcher’s thistle in the sandy dunes of the Great Lakes. At the time, no one knew if the new populations would survive.
Today, three decades later, the restored populations are thriving and spreading. This unexpected success became the foundation for a newly published study in Annals of Botany.
