Alexa Blume « The Echinacea Project

Everyone loves Echinacea!

We had a dreary, drizzly day in Douglas county, but that didn’t stop the bugs and other critters from enjoying the cool weather. Other critter sightings from the day include and are not limited to: deer, snakes, chipmunks, geese, ducks and other various birds, stink bugs, dragonflies, crickets, lots of mosquitoes and flies, and of course Team Echinacea members.

Demos, echinacea, and rain

Today the team took Echinacea Demos. We got trained in on the different scenarios we could see in the field and got to work. We set pollinator bags on the twenty closest Echinacea Pallida plants to a random point, taking demos as we went, afterwards we decapitated any other Echinacea Pallia nearby. All was right in the world during lunch, but halfway through updating our team norms the sky looked very gray and the thunder got quite loud. We moved to the porch and it started raining. I’m sure the plants were thrilled. Many members spent the afternoon working on their projects.

Big day for planting!

Today about half of the team got together and planted a new experimental plot. We all found our roles, worked efficiently, and got it done in 2 1/2 hours. Good work team! I’m excited to see what happens to the plot over the summer!

Alexa Blume

Echinacea Project 2023

West Central Area High School 2024

Pronouns: she/her

Research Interests

I want to study all of the different native plants to Minnesota and how they can coexist with agriculture. I especially want to get a good understanding of how the natural world works without much outside help.

Statement

I am from Elbow Lake, MN.

In my spare time I like to run, read different books, garden, and hang out with my dogs.