Saturday started with the three present townhallers (Erin, Julie, and myself) heading out to the field with John and Stuart in order to collect phenology data from one of our experimental plots. Jay and Riley decided to take a trip back to their undergrad institute for the weekend and Shea had prior commitments too.
Julie taking phenology measurementsPollination or just visitors? How do we assess the quality of species interactions?
Erin and I stumbled upon a mutant floret on an Echinacea. Typically the ray florets (the long pink ones people usually think of as petals) are sterile and have unforked stigma but this one has a forked stigma! Question is it receptive to pollen?
Mutant floret
Once we finished up our phenology data collection we headed back to town hall to relax. However, I decided to take a trip out to Staffanson to work on some poems and found that someone had driven through the remnant prairie!
The scene of the crime…
I have no idea who did this or why but it made me fairly disappointed. Nevertheless, I had a productive afternoon in Staffanson.
On this fine first Sunday of Summer some of the gang got grocery at Aldi. We purchased produce for salads, salsa for quesadillas, beans, beans, beans, and more beans for four bean variety vegetarian chili. Chef cooking the chili will be me tomorrow. Tonight we had the quesadillas ’cause they are quicker to make. Earlier Erin and Michael marched off on an exciting excursion having hopes of observing life birds. Both Amy and I did fieldwork forgetting Sunday is supposed to stay slothful. However, I had Pedicularis plants that needed tagging today and sundried seeds needed harvesting. Here hoping for many more fun-filled Summer Sundays.
Signing out,
Drake
P.S. The forced alliterations in this post were inspired by Mochi Julie bought at Aldi.
It had been a long 9 months in which nobody paid me any
attention. Then finally, on June 17th, The Echinacea Project field crew
that contained Jay, Shea, and Drake came to visit me. They were there to learn
how to use their visors and to hone their estimation skills. They counted my
flowering heads and searched around me for my nearest neighbors trying to gauge
how many of them would be flowering too. We had an unexpected visit from the
farmer next door who was riding in this sprayer. The Echinacea Project crew and
I were startled and wondered if he would just pass and pay us all no mind. Then
the unthinkable happened. I was nearly run over!
We all looked at each other in shock but started to calm down. The worst was over, or so we thought… the farmer’s sprayer began to extend its wings! The neighboring crops may be genetically modified to withstand his herbicides but I’m all natural. The field crew having finished what they came for and fearing being sprayed accidentally rudely returned to their car and left me for dead. I know they will be back later in the season to check up on me and my flowering heads though.
