Welcome! This first post will introduce the Accurately Counting Everything (ACE) workflow. This is the standard protocol for the work done in the Echinacea lab at the Chicago Botanic Garden. While work is being conducted in the field here in the lab volunteers continue to progress through the flower heads collected the previous summer. You can explore the flog to get more acquainted with the details of the experiments and projects. The main goal in the lab is to process Echinacea angustifolia flower heads in order to quantify female fitness and seed set.
The main steps of the ACE workflow with the names of some of the volunteers that implement it are:
Great illustration by Scott of ACE workflow
The tireless efforts of our amazing volunteers and lab members are key to the Echinacea Project!
Tuesday morning volunteer community implementing ACE workflow. From top left clockwise: Lois counting achenes from a scan; Aldo counting achenes from a scan; Susie cleaning heads; Char sampling achenes for x-raying.
Future flog posts will detail each step.
Check out the next post about how to clean flower heads to separate achenes (seeds) from the chaff like an ACE…
~Hilary
Thanks for the update, Hilary. It’s great to see a photo of the Tuesday morning team working in the lab. I hope you are all staying cool. It’s hot out in the field today but temperatures should moderate tomorrow.