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Life outside of Kensington has seemed hectic to say the least. I arrived home in Chicago last Thursday, and the next day, Dayvis and I presented our research at the REU symposium at the Field Museum. Shown below is a photo of me in the iconic museum lobby after giving my poster presentation.
The symposium on Friday was a bittersweet culmination of all my work this past summer, and a large part of me wanted to return to the rolling cornfields of Minnesota. I wish Team Echinacea all the best as they begin the long process of wrapping up a summer of research.
Poster pdf:
Schaedel_Poster1.pdf
hello everyone!
Its that time of year again, the time for school to begin. Today was a sad – Stuart, Gretel, Per, and Hattie are heading back to Chicago so they can get settled down before school begins. Today I also realized that this is my second to last week with Team Echinacea! WHERE HAS THIS SUMMER GONE!?!?!?!?
In other non-revelational new, Sarah and I mapped Hegg Lake for my experiment, and finished mapping all of her fragments. Ilse and Lydia started repainting all the QGen heads, so that no data is lost (Lydia went above and beyond the call of duty and painted every bract on all of her echinacea heads).
In the afternoon we stapled all the positions that have remained unfound by Team Echinacea members since 2010 (sad). As well as beginning the common garden re-finds.
For simple ascetics here is a picture of Bee’s Balm from Hegg Lake.
Hope everyone has a nice week!
-Kory
Although it is not yet noon, today has been busy for three team members. Mike, Pam and I have spent the day packing and backing up data as this afternoon we depart from Kensington, the Hjem house, and all the beautiful prairie remnants. It has been an enjoyable summer researching the Echinacea plants. The Li-Cor machine was especially helpful in our data collecting. We could not have done it without her. Sadly yesterday was Helga’s last day up here. She is now resting in a deep sleep until she is needed again.
As we leave, only four members remain at the town hall.
Today marked the second to the last day of mine and Reina’s stint in Kensington working with Echinacea. The past week we have been remeasuring photosynthesis with Helga our LI-COR 6400 and today we finally finished. Pam and Reina were the lucky ones who spent this last week outside working with Helga while I took wet weights of leaves and pressed them so we can obtain dry weights later. It has been a little strange this week remaining separated from the group, even at lunch time. Oh well, it was necessary so that we could finish!
Today the rest of the group spent the morning crossing and finishing measuring the common garden, an arduous task that required quite a few days. After their lunch, they continued to work on seedling refinds, a important but often frustrating task. It will be sad having to say goodbye to the whole group tomorrow, but school is about to start, and so perhaps it really is a great time to be heading home. That’s it for today, and goodbye Team Echinacea!
Today was another busy, productive day. Dayvis left for Chicago this morning bringing our number down to six. However, everyone still got a lot done.
In the morning, Lydia and Ilse continued their cross pollination adventures while Mike, Reina, and Pam finished using Helga, counted trichomes, and weighed and pressed leaves. Kory, Stuart, and I went to South of Golf Course and East Elk Lake Road to do seedling re-finds and learn how to use the GPS.
We all met up again for lunch, as usual. The table felt really empty today!
The afternoon was spent measuring the common garden (we’re close to being done). Stuart and I found a little fuzzy friend at row 23, position 912. It was super cute but we suspect it had been eating the E. angustifolia leaves.
Woolly Bear Caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella larval stage)
In other news, grasshoppers seem to like eating data sheets
That’s all for today!
Sarah B
Greetings from the Field Museum Chicago!
I have solved the mystery of the mini ants seen in Echinacea heads in the common garden. Below is a picture of the specimen. Those tic marks indicate mm and those small, yellow grains are pollen (Echinacea, I presume):
These ants have been identified as… drumroll please…
Photo courtesy of Alex Wild
Brachymyrmex depilis! Well, perhaps. This species is in need of a taxonomic revision as currently any yellow Brachymyrmex in North America are likely to be classified as depilis. This is one of the smallest ants in North America and usually subterranean.
We continued with phenology, measuring cg1, seedling refinds and crossing today. The day ended with a wonderful dinner put on by Stuart and Gretel et al., and not one but TWO bonfires at the farm house complete with s’more fixings. On Dayvis’s last night here he had his first s’more ever! Marie left in the evening and Dayvis will leave in the morning, our numbers are definitely dwindling but there is still plenty left to be done.
We had a great party on Tuesday night–Dayvis & Marie’s last day. We enjoyed excellent food, played croquet, and ate s’mores around two bonfires. Very enjoyable. The garden is late this year–no tomatoes or cucumbers yet. I regret I didn’t take any photos, but here’s the menu…
corn on the cob
pesto pasta
Pam’s pasta salad
quinoa salad
fresh sourdough bread
black bean dip
corn chips
deviled eggs
kohlrabi slices
brownies
iced tea
s’mores makings
Hey everyone,
We started off another week with a super productive Monday. In the morning the team split up between crossing and seedling re-finds. Ilse, Gretel, and I finished all the crossing in the morning which was especially exciting because we anticipated today being our busiest crossing day. Since many plants have finished flowering by now, we’re mostly topping off those last few styles with pollen and then waiting for everything to shrivel. While a few plants have hit snafus (pollen X running out before plant Y is finished flowering), the going has been steadily smooth. The seedling re-find crew (Stuart, Marie, Dayvis, Kory, and Sarah B) managed to finish two sites this morning with only one visor. Extra impressive!
Although we’re still sad to see the first of team Echinacea depart (Sara Z on Saturday), we welcomed the return of Mike, Reina, and Pam who spent the last week at ESA. The Gustavus trio spent most of the day measuring photosynthesis with “Helga” and collecting leaves.
This afternoon we all began measuring the Big Batch section of CG1. Although a daunting amount of plants, we managed to make a serious dent and will hopefully get through all of it by the end of the week.
I’ll sign off with a grasshopper photo I took during phenology. Have a good week!
Hey everyone!
Sunday was a very relaxing day. In the morning most of the team worked on phonology, which is winding down.
My parents came up on saturday to visit. I took them out to see some of the larger prairie fragments such as Hegg Lake. On sunday we had a brunch at Traveler’s Inn, and went for a walk in the Runestone Park.
Here is a E. angustifolia that is almost done flowering.
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