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Now that Danny and I are getting settled in at the lab, it’s time to head back to the field! Gretel, Stuart, Danny, and I will be heading out of Chicago on Monday afternoon back to Douglas County for the next week. We spent some time last Friday getting prepared for all of the remaining fieldwork, which includes things like removing flags, re-rechecking demo, and (hopefully!) burning the p8 plot, where the q3 experiment will be planted. We also began making plans for the lab in the coming year–there will be this year’s harvest to process, papers to write, students to mentor, along with improvements we hope to make on the project like a new data entry system to replace the beloved but frail Visors. We talked about who is going to do what and how we’re going to coordinate getting it all done! Rest assured, dear reader, that it will involve to-do lists and technology specially designed to maximize our productivity. Stay tuned as Team Echinacea returns to Minnesota for a busy week of fun and fieldwork!
 See ya Lake Mich
Yesterday afternoon, Ali and I went on a journey of epic proportions. What for, you ask? To find the elusive recruitment plot 7, of course! During the past couple weeks, we have been taking demography data on the Echinacea plants flowering in small recruitment plots planted by members of Team Echinacea in previous years. These plots are demarcated by poles in the corners and have generally been a breeze to find. Ali and I had just taken data at a plot north of Steven’s Approach, and were looking forward to finishing off the day with this last plot. We started out with spirits high; on the map, the plot appeared to be only a 5 minute walk from the road. Using the GPS unit to stake the point we needed to find, we realized that to get straight to the plot we’d need to plunge through the heart of a dark, swampy, scraggly forest that most likely contained a witch’s hut. To bypass this obstacle, we set off through a recently harvested corn field, keeping an eye on the GPS and hoping to cut back over to the plot as soon as we had a clear path to it. However, once we saw the complex of lakes and wetlands that lay to the north of the small woods, we realized that our path might not be as straightforward as we’d imagined. So began an hour and a half long journey through fields, marshes, pastures, mud, prairie, and a mysterious junkyard that I almost believed was a hallucination until Ali commented on its strangeness. We became increasingly convinced that the plot had been swallowed up by wetlands, or that it didn’t exist at all. Finally, having at last found our way back to the road about a half mile east of where we’d started, we decided that we had to give up and call it a day. These pictures are all we have to show for our adventure.
Started off with clear minds and hearts  “Where are we? Is this plot a prank??” “It’s probably just through these reeds!” “NOPE. That’s a lake.”
After escaping the junkyard of broken dreams…”Are we in Ireland now?” Aside from these misadventures, we took advantage of the damp and dreary weather to start dissecting Q3 heads. They’ve all been harvested by now (yay!!), so all that remains is to remove the achenes and sort them based on pollen donor. This takes some time and concentration, but it’s enjoyable and relaxing. So far we have dissected 20 heads…only 134 more to go before we take the achenes down to Chicago to be x-rayed!
Ali hard at work at her dissecting station
While field work continues in good old Kensington, Amy and Danny have moved to their new residence in Evanston to begin work at the Garden. It’s an exciting time filled with new faces such as the many wonderful volunteers who help clean, count, weigh, and do many other things with Echinacea heads. Today, Nina, who goes to the Illinois Math and Science Academy, was in the lab and we were able to discuss what she’ll be doing for the year (more to come later). The shiny metal of the lab was quite a change from the vivid goldenrod and smooth blue aster of the prairie and Jared’s standing desk set up only partially simulates the feeling of standing in a patch big blue stem. All in all, it’s a different environment but a very welcoming one and the Garden itself is absolutely beautiful.
Hi, I’m Nina, and I’m a student at the Illinois Math and Science Academy that will be working with the Echinacea Project through the 2015/2016 academic year. I will be conducting a competition experiment between Echinacea angustifolia and Echinacea purpurea. In the past, I’ve been an intern with Plants of Concern, volunteering at Volo Bog State Natural Area and collecting data on various threatened and endangered species. I’m very excited to start my project here!
Today and yesterday Katherine and I harvested most of the heads from P1 and P2! It’s an all day affair now that it’s just the two of us, but we enjoyed seeing how much progress we’ve made- many of the rows and all of the heads for Q3 are completely harvested! Today at P2 we had a picnic lunch in the field to maximize efficiency and enjoy the beautiful and clear fall day. I also gained a deeper understanding for just how caring of a person Katherine is. As we were harvesting she carefully ensured no bugs made it into the bag declaring, “Why must I have such a respect for the sanctity of all life!” as she herded another small bug back into its home at hegg. Unfortunately as we headed home, the truck didn’t quite start! Luckily, a kind passerby helped us jump it and after at the auto body shop we got to play with Bo, the friendly and pudgy yellow lab.
We started off today by receiving a post card from Ben! It’s addressed to all of Team Echinacea, so I urge everyone to return to read it in person (and so we can see you)! To say we were overjoyed would be an understatement, and it reminded us how much we miss our buddies who have returned home, to school, and to continue work in Chicago! Unfortunately as you can see from the pictures, some members were not so fortunate as to remain humans after the summer. So much time spent studying Echinacea has caused Gina to turn into an Echinacea and from eating too many cucumbers from the Wagenius’ garden, Ben has become a cucumber! We are impressed by how much this summer influenced our friends both academically, and physically.
 Katherine cuddles Bo while the car is expected!  Gina misses the project so much she’s turned herself into an Echinacea! We miss Ben, but we like him as a cucumber too
As of Tuesday, 139 out of 153 total Q3 heads have been harvested. That means there are only 14 more to go. Yay!!!
With Gretel having left for Chicago after lunch today, Ali and I are officially alone here in Kensington! While holding down the fort for a week will likely be challenging due to the large amount of fieldwork left to be done, we’re confident that we’ll be able to handle it. Our newfound ability to drive stick-shift has already proved invaluable, and we’re gaining confidence with it every day. This afternoon, we drove around to harvest at the remnants, and we finished off the harvest at Steven’s approach, NW of landfill, and Hegg. Now the truck is parked safely in our driveway, which will be its home for the next month!
Here are some photos from the week!
The beautiful birthday cake Gretel made me!
Ali also made me a cake!! Being hooligans in P1, as usual
On Friday, yet another member of Team Echinacea left Kensington! 🙁 Amy moved down to Chicago this past weekend to start the lab-based portion of her internship. We’re excited for her, but we definitely miss her (and her mom-like presence) back here in Minnesota! Hope the Chicago Botanic Garden is treating you well so far, Amy!
It was a quiet weekend for me here in Kensington, with Amy moving and both Danny and Ali in Northfield visiting college friends. For the first time in a long time, none of us town hall kids were together in the same place! It made me miss the days when there were 8 of us living here.
Today at work, we started the day by harvesting heads in the remnants and at Hegg Lake. Only 7 heads remain to be harvested in the remnants as of today! In addition, Ali measured senescence in Gina and Abby’s aphid addition and exclusion plants, and all 3 of us collected Bouteloua seeds at Hegg to be planted in P2. At lunch, we were excited to see Gretel for the first time in weeks! She headed out with us this afternoon to do seedling refinds at the landfill, NW of landfill, and S of golf course sites. After completing these sites, we staked the focal plants at Loeffler’s corner, in case we have time for more seedling refinds tomorrow.
Ali and I did lots of driving practice in the truck!
As the title suggests, today was the only day this week that we didn’t harvest. It was also the chilliest by far! With a nice cool 48 degrees to start the day, we went to one of the recruitment plots to do demography and didn’t find a single flowering plant. We tried going to the other plot nearby and realized that it was going to be wet and we didn’t have boots so we pushed it off for later.
 Searching in an Echinacea barren land We then went and did seedling searches for the rest of the morning and got quite a bit done!
 Amy and Katherine find a focal plant After lunch Ali and Katherine practiced driving and Amy and Danny went to another site to look for seedlings. After that we harvested a bunch of Bouteloua curtipendula to put into our one of our most recent experimental plots. Overall it was a productive day with a lot of fun and a large amount of cold wind.
A gallon of Bouteloua
Today the team headed out to kjs to finish up the seedling refinds! We were happy to finish the site with the most seedlings! From kjs we went to P1 to do a harvest! On Thursday we were so proud of the progress we’d made with the harvest, and naively thoughtthat Thursday may have been the longest day! Little did we know we would spend the greater part of today ruthlessly chopping off the heads of the flowers we tended so carefully all summer. We may have lost more that just the flower’s heads out there! Happily we had a croc pot meal of chili with cornbread courtesy of Danny! Yum!
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