Southern California’s iconic Joshua trees are in bloom, and California State University, Northridge’s environmental biologists are asking the public’s help in figuring out why and what it means for the trees’ future.

Joshua trees are only pollinated by yucca moths, but how do the moths know when it is time to pollinate? That is what Pryce Millikin, a California State University, Northridge biology graduate student, is trying to figure out, and he’s asking the public to help.

A team of researchers led by California State University, Northridge evolutionary biologist Jeremy Yoder partnered with hundreds of volunteer naturalists to reconstruct how 120 years of climate change has affected Joshua trees.