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Another Wednesday dawned bright, but wet, for Team Echinacea. Mike and Reina left early this morning to go to St. Peter before eventually heading to ESA. Sarah visited several remnants to monitor phenology. Sara Z also worked on her independent project in the morning, identifying ants. Kory and Marie went to Hegg Lake: Marie to assess the phenology of Dayvis’s plants, and Kory to watch pollinators. Both Lydia and Ilse helped with the crossing experiment in the common garden.
After lunch, Nicholas and Marie measured the two-year old hybrids in Josh’s garden. All other team members continued to work on crossing.
Above: A thriving hybrid at Hegg Lake. I decided to check up on my plot while doing phenology for Dayvis.
There are a lot of left-overs from Pam’s party to supplement tonight’s dinner. Lydia is getting creative by mixing bratwurst into black bean soup (expertly pureed to perfection by her Cuisinart). Cheesy Bisquick biscuits will accompany the soup. Yum!
Today, we said hello once again to the muggy weather and clouds of mosquitoes. Phenology data was collected from the common garden in the morning. I collected my own flowering phenology data, too. Most of the plants in the remnants I’m using are finishing up flowering now!
After lunch, Reina and Mike counted trichomes while the rest of us measured plants in the common garden. The mosquitoes were out in droves and it was difficult to keep up morale. Thankfully, Marie and I found a little friend. We fondly named him/her Herb.
Later on in the evening, the whole team went to where Pam is staying with Susan to eat dinner and hang out. It was a lovely time with delicious food and wonderful company. I know I’m not the only one who ate too much!
Looking forward to a windier day tomorrow!
Sarah B
Another bustling day here in Douglas County. Gretel, Ilse, Ruth, and I continued working on the crossing experiment this morning while everyone else got busy with their independent projects. Mike and Reina were taking pictures of plants and counting trichomes while Marie and Kory were at Hegg Lake. Sarah B (you guessed it) continued her work on phenology while Sara Z collected some very mysterious ants that have been eating the head of one of the plants in the crossing experiments (uh oh).
After lunch the group started measuring plants in the common garden. While the weather forecast said only 10% chance of rain today, we got hit with some definite showers and were forced to abandon outdoor work for the rest of the day. Instead we had our second group tutorial in R where we learned some more basics like randomization and creating data frames.
Today Reina, Mike and I went out to do phenology this morning, along with Gretel, Stuart and Per it went by pretty quick! I found this confused ray florette this morning.
And below is a head with just one lone anther…enjoying its last day of flowering.
In the afternoon Gretel and I worked on continuing crossing in the qGen experiment. All in all it was a relatively quiet day here in Kensington.
Hello everyone!
The cold spell that we have been under is still hanging around. Which for me means I can sleep in for once on the weekends; on the flip side the pollinators will not be out, and no data can be collected.
Here is a picture of a pollinator that I saw, unfortunately I did not see her today… On the bright side tomorrow is predicted to be sunny and not windy! I am hoping for a bumper day tomorrow!
May the pollinators be every plentiful,
Kory
This morning we had Tv people film us doing phenology and other various projects such as stipa, crossing, and trichome picture taking. The weather decided to be cloudy in the morning, rain for about an hour, become cloudy again, and then be nice and sunny! The afternoon consisted of more picture taking of trichomes and stipa searching. Kory was even able to pin a few pollinators! It was a productive day overall.
This morning started out with some of the crew at varying remnants working on independent projects and some were at the Hjelm house: Reina and Pam were working on their trichome data, while Sara Z worked on pinning ants, Lydia and I began some crosses but were soon rained out. Before we got rained out however I found this large fly larva in the head of the plant I was crossing…normally they are transparent-ish…this one however had a hay day with the pollen and as you can see is quite orange!
Once the rain put a stop to the crosses for the morning we worked on organizing and taking inventory of the pollen that has been collected thus far for the crossing experiment (qGen2).
After lunch today Stuart gave the crew a brief introduction into the wonderful world of R…OHHHHH the possibilities….
Then, later in the afternoon, we had many hands on deck helping with crosses that had been prioritized for the day. The most important thing about crossing is that you accessorize well while doing it, and what better way to accessorize than to have a handy bract painting bracelet! Below I am showing proper bracelet wearing technique.
These bracelets are all the rage right now at the Hjelm house, and they certainly are not going out of “style” anytime soon! (Or at least not until the crossing experiment is finished). Well, I must say we are very fashion forward here in Kensington, and I’m sure no one will be caught without one tomorrow because of the exciting happenings that are to be taking place tomorrow morning….but I shouldn’t say anymore just yet….stay tuned!
Hey everyone!
Today was a very beautiful day, sunny and high in the mid 70’s. I am loving these cooler temps, however the cool weather makes it hard to guess when the pollinators will be out and buzzing. I did have an interesting visitor on one of my heads though, I would not have guessed to see a bumblebee visit. Dayvis (who is on the other side of Hegg Lake) also saw one too! Strange times we are living in, strange times.
Sarah B is still working on her phonology project and Sara Z has been working hard on her project regarding ants! MIke, Reina, and Marie worked on their projects for most of today as well. Later in the afternoon some people went out to collect pollen for the crossing experiment and even got in a few crosses!
Today was a beautiful day in Kensington, with a nice breeze and a high in the upper 70s. The pollinators apparently disagreed with this assessment, as both Dayvis and Kory had trouble finding them at their respective plots in Hegg Lake this morning. Back at the Hjelm House, Marie, Reina, Mike, and Gretel worked on phenology in the common garden. Flowering is finally well under way, although no one has a good estimate for the percentage of flowering heads. The Sara(h)s visited 5 remnants to monitor flowering and capture ants.
In the afternoon, Reina, Mike, and Pam worked on a poster for ESA. Marie and Dayvis went back to Hegg Lake with Sulu to find some well-concealed pallida plants. The rest of the crew worked on crosses in the common garden.
Dinner by Dayvis was delicious as usual, although he complained vociferously about the stove burning the lentils he had planned to serve. Reina donated two blocks of fudge given by her mother (Turtle and Dark Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt). Sara Z went missing, and has no idea of the culinary delights that she missed out on.
Today was a busy day for Team Echinacea. The morning started off with phenology in the common garden. We have a lot of flowering Echinacea and many of them are far along! It was a nice, cool, dewey morning, a pleasant change from the heat and humidity this week. Too bad the dew didn’t stick to the spider web so that this poor fella’ may have avoided being breakfast…
Afterwards, Lydia continued her aphid addition and exclusion experiment then gave Hattie a hair wrap.
Marie finished scanning her plot. Now she has much analyzing to look forward to! Dayvis and Marie also report gopher sightings at Hegg Lake.
Sarah and I worked together on our projects. Sarah continued her phenology at the Landfill sites while I followed looking for ants on Echinacea. It was a cool and wet morning so the ants were not very active. We did have several close encounters with an electric fence at Around Landfill, but no on-the-job accidents today.
Currently, Mike and Reina are at the Grant County Fair. Lydia (with the help of Sarah, Dayvis, and Marie) polished off leftover pizza that Marie made. It was Marie’s rendition of dining hall pizza: buffalo tofu; to which Lydia says, “I think it tastes fine.” It’s finally gone, now we are looking forward to Marie’s next culinary creation.
Ilse is camping this weekend and Kory is in IL with family. We miss them dearly and await their safe return tomorrow.
-Sara Z
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