With echinacea identification under our belt, it was time to get acquainted with our new friend: stipa. (Officially Hesperostipa spartea, but we’re on a first-name basis now.) While it blends in better among the other grasses, we learned the tell of its long, wispy, thread-like leaves. And of course, the flowering culms reminiscent of a porcupine with their quill-like awns.

As we visited our new stipa friends in exPt01, we were met by a variety of personalities: large, outgoing stipa who made their presence known from meters away; sneaky characters who attempted to elude our sight; self-care stipa taking a year off from flowering; a couple of rogue stipa who sprung up somewhere unexpected; and of course, those unfound who may have passed away this year. Rest in peace. We also encountered a few creatures along the way, including a large garter snake who, while very friendly, likely did not want to be our long-term sidekick and was thenceforth returned to the cool earth.

Over the 4th of July weekend, I visited Willow River State Park in Wisconsin, where I put my new stipa identification skills to use in the wild and located a stipa plant, pictured below. I was very excited. My hiking-mates smiled and nodded, not quite under the same stipa spell as I. Can you spot the stipa?

After waiting for the improved visibility of a cloudy overcast to conduct one final search through exPt01, the day arrived and we found the final 19 flowering stipa plants still lingering among the grasses, concluding our stipa collection expedition.

Overall, we found 100 flowering plants and 52 basal plants this season. The total culm count was 358 with one plant having 24 culms. Of the 152 plants, 40 were at locations not planned on being searched this year, meaning they may have been marked as missing the past couple years when a plant was still there. Two were rogue plants (new offspring). This was a big year for flowering stipa, as last year there were only 44 flowering plants but 150 basal plants.

Next up, counting the fruits!