Dear California Invasive Plant Council,

I am sorry to bother you. I am a PhD student from the Institute of Biology, Leiden University, the Netherlands and my study major is the evolutionary changes in invasive Jacobaea vulgaris ( common ragwort, former name is Senecio jacobaea). It is a monocarpic perennial plant that is native to Eurasia and was introduced into North America around the 1850s. Due to its invasiveness and toxicity, it caused enormous ecological and economical loss in the USA. I have worked with this plant species for 4 years now and so far I got some promising experimental results from the evolution point of view which can contribute the controlling of this species.

Currently we meet some problems that the database of our seeds are out of date. The seeds we had collected from USA were all quite old and difficult to germinate. Since we still want to do further research on this species, we eagerly need more seeds from the USA.

Therefore we would like to ask your help that is it possible for your researcher to collect some seeds from several Jacobaea vulgaris populations around California when they are doing investigation in the field? Now it is the right time for this species to flower.

We are really appreciate your willingness for this great help. If you need more information please contact me and I can come to your institute in person to pick up the seeds if needed. We are looking forwards to hearing from you.

Best regards

Tiantian

Tiantian Lin

Ph.D student

Plant Ecology and Phytochemistry

Institute of Biology, Leiden University

Sylviusweg 72, 2333 BE Leiden, The Netherlands

Tel:+31(0) 684403593