Maddie and Kyra went to two remnant sites in Aanenson and West Aanenson to observe individual characteristics and compare the differences between the two sites and transects within. The transects at both sites were located on a natural hill, however the transects at West Aanenson were closer in proximity to a roadcut. Among both sites, it did not look like there were any recent burns. We observed more echinacea plants among transects in Aanenson in comparison to the transects in West Aanenson. Both sites seemed to have no history of agricultural use, though there were active corn crops across the road. We observed a larger diversity of plants at the Aanenson site, and we hypothesize that this is due to a difference in land management techniques as sites are owned by different agencies, though overall there are more similarities than differences between the two sites.
We saw many different plants at the different sites including:
- Narrow-leaf purple coneflower (Echinacea Angustifolia) – native non-leguminous forb
- Prairie rose (Rosa arkansan) – native non -leguminous forb
- Ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) – non-native non-leguminous forb
- Silverleaf scurf pea (Pediomelum argophyllum) – native legume
- Lead plant (Amorpha canescens) – native legume
- Porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea) – native C3 grass
- Brome grass (Galium spp.) – non-native c3 grass
- Big blue stem (Andropogon gerardii) – native c4 grass
Just to name a few….
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