Well Billy Joel, although your 1980’s classic hit is all too catchy, technically we did start this fire.

Over the past weekend, Team Echinacea decided to cap off a week of diligent work with a nice, relaxing potluck paired with an epic campfire. The food was delicious, but the company was even more enjoyable. Stuart and Gretel provided a delectable pesto, Jared and Claire (aka Clairred) prepared a tasty bean dip, and Maureen capped off the scrumptious meal with a cherry pie and a peach crumble that were to die for (not literally of course! That would be ridiculous). Following the feast, a fire was started to honor the great Echinacea Gods, which have blessed us with a prosperous flowering season and delightful weather. There was a little bit of difficultly starting the fire, but no problem is too large for a group of extremely bright scientists (at least that what we tell ourselves anyway). During the fire, Per, Hattie, Elizabeth, and I tested our luck at a friendly game of badminton. I paired up with Per while Elizabeth chose Hattie as her partner. What started as a friendly matchup, quickly turned into a competitive, all-out battle of the sexes! It wasn’t long before Hattie and Per were spiking shuttlecocks at each other while Elizabeth and I exchanged looks of distaste. Fortunately, the gruesome battle was cut short when Per spiked the birdie so hard that the rubber tip fully detached from the plastic base portion. I think it’s safe to say that this particular birdie won’t be flying again anytime soon. Although some harsh words were exchanged (all in good faith of course), at the end of the day, all conflict was left in the past as the team enjoyed roasted marshmallows over melty chocolate sandwiched between two yummy, graham crackers. And if you don’t enjoy S’mores, the only thing I have to say to you is “You’re killing me smalls!” (If you didn’t get that reference, then you need to go watch The Sandlot immediately. If you’ve never heard of The Sandlot, then I’m sorry but it’s too late to save you). All in all, it was a memorable weekend for the members of Team Echinacea.

The past two weeks have gone great for Team Echinacea. We finished up measuring seedlings in Q2, set up flags for P1 and Hegg lake, as well as marked flowering plants in P1 and other remnant populations. Although these weeks have been fairly laid back, the pace is about to pick up very quick. With Echinacea beginning to flower, there is a lot of work to be done, whether it be independent projects or adding data to larger, long-term projects. To sum up, we have a lot of work ahead of us, but that’s what we at Team Echinacea look forward to!

And on a lighter note, here is a picture of an awesome, mutant Echinacea plant which has two almost identical flowering heads emerging from the same peduncle. This is the first plant of its type seen since the start of the Echinacea Project. Sorry about the blurriness, but you can still get the general idea.

Tuesday’s morning started out similar to the past few mornings. The team worked on finding Echinacea seedlings and measuring them in the Quantitative Genetics plot 2 (a.k.a. Q2). We were a little worried that we would be rained out, but the gloomy, foggy weather quickly passed and the sun emerged to make for a beautiful day. The team split into pairs and measured multiple segments of seedlings. During this time, two members of the team, Jared Beck and Will Reed, discovered a rare Echinacea seedling with 3 cotyledons, also known as a tricot.

For the afternoon portion of Tuesday’s workday, we were introduced to Common Garden 1 (a.k.a. Experimental Plot 1), a site that has lead to numerous important findings concerning the biology of Echinacea. Some of these plants were planted as early as 1996! (fun fact: some of these plants may be as old as our youngest team member, Will Reed) The majority of the team spent the afternoon flagging a plethora of Echinacea plants, or points where Echinacea had once thrived but now cease to exist (may those plants now rest in peace). While we worked on flagging, Stuart was hard at work mowing in between the transects, creating an easily visible and safe walkway. Personally, I had the pleasure of working with Stuart and Gretel’s son Per. There was never a dull moment as we discussed funny pranks, the joys of having uncommon names, and the mystery/absurdity that is art. During this time, Per managed to concoct a ninja/airplane/bird out of old, flag-less pins (we couldn’t decide which one it was). All in all, it was a very productive, pleasant day in the field for Team Echinacea.

A picture of the electric tower near Q2 which illustrates the gloomy start to our day.

Here you can see the tricot discovered by Will and Jared.

The team hard at work in Experimental Plot 1

Finally, an interesting spider that Per and I found later identified as a Goldenrod Crab Spider