Orchid hunting trip

On Friday all of us except Greg went on a trip to a mesic prairie 3 hours away to help Gretel look for orchids. We split into 3 groups of 3 and flagged the flowering plants within the various treatment grids.

The Western Fringed Prairie Orchid, Pratanthera praeclara a threatened species. The first orchid I’ve seen in the wild!

Allegra, Amanda, Daniel, Caroline, Amy, Stuart–it was pretty cold for mid-July!

Mountain mint–Pycnanthemum sp. It was really neat to see some different species found in the mesic prairie, as well as some familiar ones. Some others plants we saw were Liatris, Rudbeckia hirta, Apocynum, Lilium philadelphicum,, Asclepias incarnata, A. speciosa, and Campanula. Below is another mint, whose name I can’t remember:

Thanks Gretel for letting us help!