Description: In the summer of 2010, Gretel Kiefer successfully crossed native Echinacea angustifolia plants in experimental plot 1 with pollen from Echinacea pallida, a non-native species found in a prairie restoration at the Hegg Lake Wildlife Management Area. In the summer of 2011, Nicholas Goldsmith performed reciprocal crosses between 5 plants of Echinacea pallida at Hegg Lake and 31 plants E. angustifolia from exPt 1 to determine the hybridization potential of these two species. Nicholas’s E. pallida plants were mowed after flowering, so the achenes were lost but we harvested heads from the E. angustifolia used in crosses. During the winter of 2011/2012 we germinated achenes from both experiments and grew them as plugs in the laboratory. In the summer of 2012, team members planted 66 seedlings in two rows within Josh’s grass experimental plot (exPt6). Team members take fitness measurements such as number of rosettes and leaf lengths every year.
Echinacea pallida on Hegg Lake
Start year: Crosses in 2010 & 2011, planted in 2012
Location: Experimental plot 6 (aka Josh’s plot)
Products: Check the flog for preliminary analyses and annual reports.
Read updates about this experiment on our flog (field blog) as written by members of Team Echinacea.
