2024 Update: Echinacea hybrids (exPt 6,7,9) and Echinacea pallida flowering phenology

Echinacea pallida is a species of Echinacea that is not native to Minnesota. It was mistakenly introduced to our study area during a restoration of Hegg Lake WMA around 2006 (Stuart’s recollection). This is concerning, because we don’t know how a similar species may impact or local Echinacea angustifolia! Will they hybridize? Could pallida outcompete angustifolia? Ever since pallida have started springing up, Team Echinacea has visited the pallida restoration, taken flowering phenology, and collected demography on the non-native plant. We have decapitated all flowering E. pallida each year to avoid cross-pollination with the local Echinacea angustifolia. Each year, we record the number of heads on each plant and the number of rosettes, collect precise GPS points for each individual, and cut off all the heads before they produce fruits.

Echinacea pallida flowering:

This year, we cut E. pallida heads on June 26th. Overall, we found and shot 172 flowering E. pallida plants with 512 normal heads in total, averaging 2.98 heads per plant, though the max was 20 on a single plant! These non-native plants were hearty with an average rosette count of 7.20 rosettes and an astounding individual with a maximum of 88 rosettes. We did not take phenology data on E. pallida this year.

Team 2024 returns to their vehicles after flagging, taking demography data on, and decapitating *Echinacea pallida* at Hegg Lake WMA

Start year: 2011
Location: Hegg Lake WMA (MN DNR)
Overlaps with:
- Demographic census in remnants
Data collected:
- Demography data: head counts, rosette counts, etc.
  - data in aiisummer2024 repo: ~/aiisummer2024/demo/demoGood2024.txt
- Spatial location for every flowering E. pallida
  - data in aiisummer2024 repo: ~/aiisummer2024/surv/survGood2024.txt
Samples collected:
- Echinacea pallida were not collected: decapitated heads were left on the ground next to the plants
- A flowering echinacea at the aptly named nearby remnant “near pal” looked suspiciously like a hybrid (more robust than an angustifolia). We put a pollinator exclusion bag on the single head to prevent pollen spread, and later harvested the head and brought it back to the lab, where it is currently in the seed dryer. Keep an eye on tag 29239 in the future
Products:
- None… yet! Besides a prairie with significantly less E. pallida reproduction

You can find more information about E. pallida flowering phenology and previous flog posts on the background page for the experiment.

exPt06:

Experimental plot 6 was the first E. angustifolia x E. pallida hybrid plot planted by Team Echinacea. A total of 66 Echinacea hybrids were originally planted. All individuals have E. angustifolia dams and E. pallida sires. In 2024, we visited 23 positions, 4 of which were can’t find year 3 in 2023 and didn’t get their final double check. We found living plants at all positions but those four (so, 19)! Last year, for the first time, 3 plants flowered in this plot. This year, no plants flowered.

Start year: 2011 (crossing) and 2012 (planting)
Location: Wagenius property
Overlaps with:
- common garden experiment
Data collected:
- Measure data (status, size, etc.)
  - data in SQL database
Samples collected:
- None (no flowering plants)
Products:
- None… yet!

You can find more information about experimental plot 6 and previous flog posts about it on the background page for the experiment.

exPt07:

Experimental plot 7 is the second E. pallida x E. angustifolia plot. It contains conspecific crosses of each species as well as reciprocal hybrids, totaling 294 pdeigreed individuals. We took phenology records between July 10th and July 18th. There were 42 flowering plants this year; from these we harvested 87 heads. Heads in this plot were covered by pollinator exclusion bags during the growing season to prevent cross-pollination with nearby Echinacea populations.

Start year: 2012 (crossing) and 2013 (planting)
Location: Hegg Lake WMA (MN DNR)
Overlaps with:
- common garden experiment
Data collected:
- Phenology data (dates of flowering stages)
  - data in cgData repo: ~/cgData/summer2024/exPt79Phenology
- Measure data (status, size, etc.)
  - data in SQL database
- Harvest data (IDs of harvested heads, missing achenes, etc)
  - detailed data in dropbox: dropbox/CGData/140_reconcile/reconcile2024/reconcileOut/2024harvestListReconciledExport.csv
  - data in echinaceaLab package (hh.2024)
Samples collected:
- 87 heads harvested
  - at CBG for processing
Products:
- None… yet!

You can find more information about experimental plot 7 and previous flog posts about it on the background page for the experiment.

exPt09:

There were originally 745 seedlings planted in exPt09. Experimental plot 9 is a hybrid plot, but, unlike the other two hybrid plots, we do not have a perfect pedigree of the plants. That is because the E. angustifolia and E. pallida maternal plants used to generate seedlings for exPt09 were open-pollinated. At this point, some but not all plants in this plot were tested for paternity, revealing that there are some hybrids. This year, we took phenology records between July 9th and July 18th. During measuring, we searched at 292 positions and found evidence of 234 living plants in 2024. Of these individuals, 70 were flowering. We harvested 110 heads from this plot! Heads in this plot were covered by pollinator exclusion bags during the growing season to prevent cross-pollination with nearby Echinacea populations.

Start year: 2014
Location: Hegg Lake WMA (MN DNR)
Overlaps with:
- common garden experiment
Data collected:
- Phenology data (dates of flowering stages)
  - data in cgData repo: ~/cgData/summer2024/exPt79Phenology
- Measure data (status, size, etc.)
  - data in SQL database
- Harvest data (IDs of harvested heads, missing achenes, etc)
  - detailed data in dropbox: dropbox/CGData/140_reconcile/reconcile2024/reconcileOut/2024harvestListReconciledExport.csv
  - data in echinaceaLab package (hh.2024)
Samples collected:
- 110 heads harvested
  - at CBG for processing
Products:
- None… yet!