Nurturing Natives- Pitcher’s Thistle

The Pitcher’s thistle, also known as the dune thistle, is a rare and unfortunately declining plant within dune habitats in the Great Lakes region. Due to invasive plants in the dunes such as spotted knapweed, real estate development on the lakefront, and and climate change that warp the delicate conditions the plant needs to survive, they have fallen into a quite critical status. Dr. Zina Pitcher, one of the first regents of the University of Michigan and who founded the Michigan Medical School, was the first to describe the species around 1872 in the Upper Peninsula.