Cirsium funkiae
Cirsium funkiae, the funky thistle or Funk's thistle, is a species of thistle found in the United States. It was first described by American botanist Jennifer Ackerfield in 2022.
The funky thistle's common name refers to the plant's "funky" appearance, with a nodding woolly flower head, and additionally honors Ackerfield's mentor Vicki Funk, who was also described as funky. The funky thistle can be differentiated from the similar looking mountain thistle Cirsium scopulorum by the coloration of the style branches and corolla, and the nodding flowerhead that the funky thistle exhibits.
Taxonomy
Cirsium funkiae was discerned as a separate species by Jennifer Ackerfield, head curator at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Ackerfield was cautious not to use the term "discovered", cautious that it was possible that local Indigenous peoples were already aware of the species' distinct identity prior to her description. Ackerfield had begun studying the thistles in 2016 as a part of her PhD studies. Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado, would later highlight the thistle's discovery on Twitter. The funky thistle was the first described living organism in the year of 2022 found in the Rocky Mountain Region.C. funkiae was formerly considered for more than 150 years as part of C. scopulorum, the mountain thistle. Specimens of both the funky and mountain thistle would be labeled under the same designation until it was separated. Through molecular, geographic, and morphological analysis, it was deemed that the mountaintop thistle C. eatonii was polyphyletic and therefore should be split. The species complex that was Cirsium eatonii was split in 2020, re-instating the former taxa C. clokeyi, C. murdockii, C. peckii, and C. tweedyi, as well as creating the taxa C. harrisonii and C. viperinum. In addition, C. eatonii var. eriocephalum was additionally polyphyletic, and renamed Cirsium scopulorum. The original description for scopulorum described a "yellow corolla", but was in the geographic region of the pale purple variety. Additional notes stated that the flowers were possibly too young and thus unable to tell the color of the corolla in the first place. The pale purple variety thus received the designation of scopulorum, leaving the yellow variety undescribed. Five species were separated from the former C. scopulorum complex. Cirsium culebraensis, C. funkiae, C. griseum, C. hesperium, and C. scopulorum. Two species, C. funkiae and C. culebraensis. Discoveries of plants such as C. funkiae can help researchers determine climate change-induced effects on species distribution and interaction.
The holotype specimen is housed in the Kathryn Kalmbach Herbarium at Denver Botanic Gardens. It was selected to be the institution's 100,000th accession into the natural history collections on March 7, 2023.
Description
The funky thistle is a hairy perennial herb that grows up to in height. The plant has yellow branches with pale yellow flowers that turn brown with age that grow in fuzzy clusters. The leaves are oblong or narrowly elliptic and undulate. The leaves are pinnately divided and are in length and in width. The leaves range from smooth to hairy in texture. The seeds are dark brown or grayish brown in color, and are in length. It flowers from mid-July until late-August, the plant begins to fruit from mid-August to early September. Jennifer Ackerfield, who described it, said it was the "funkiest of all new thistles".Ackerfield described the coloration of the style branches, corolla, and the head position, as the best characteristics toward identifying the alpine thistles in the Southern Rocky Mountains. The style branches are yellow in color. The corolla is pale yellow in color, turning brown as it ages. The anther tube is white in color, alternatively pale yellow with brown stripes. The flower head grows in a nodding, terminal cluster. The thistle differs from the similar Cirsium scopulorum in its style branches being yellow rather than white, pale pink, or purple, but similar due to their nodding terminal arrangement of the heads.
The large plants serve as food sources for a variety of pollinators in its habitat. The plant is visited by bumblebees, who often overnight in the fuzzy flowerheads to stay warm. The leaves are often foraged by the American pika during the months of August and September.