In summer 2021, Team Echinacea searched for and mapped 71 Green Milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora) plants across 8 patches of remnant prairie in our study area in western MN. This denizen of dry prairies is tough to spot and appears to be declining across its range. Our goal is to monitor Green Milkweed individuals in the study area to better understand their demography, responses to prescribed fire, and reproduction. We located and mapped 70 Green Milkweed plants, 59 of which flowered. Of the plants that flowered, 31 produced pods. We harvested pods from 22 plants for further study in the lab and (hopefully) growing some plants from seed.
Flowering Green Milkweed at Staffanson with a pod! Note the patent-pending rubberband technique that we used to prevent pods from releasing seeds before harvest.
- Start year: 2021
- Location: Remnant patches of prairie in and around Solem Township, MN
- Overlaps with: NA
- Data collected: demographic data: ~Dropbox/burnRems/remAv/data2021/ascvir2021.csv
- Samples or specimens collected: Pods/seed collected during summer 2021 currently reside in Jared’s office. These seeds need to be inventoried, cleaned, counted, and x-rayed.
- Products: Stay tuned!
You can read more about the Asclepias viridiflora demography project, as well as links to prior flog entries about this experiment, on the background page for this experiment.
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