ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1987

CRITICAL HABITAT: None

RECOVERY PLAN: 1993

RANGE: Patchily distributed within a 150-square mile area in Otero County, New Mexico

THREATS: Livestock grazing, spring diversions, logging, recreation, exotic seed-head weevils

POPULATION TREND: The decline of this plant has been documented since 2000. Between that year and 2007, the total population plummeted from 35,000 to 24,000 individual plants.

Sacramento Mountains thistle photo © Robert Sivinski