Today was a legendary day in the history of Team Echinacea. It was raining this morning and we started late, but the weather fortunately cleared ub and the forecast was combletely ubended for a nice, sunny, day! The day brought glory. We went out to exberimental blot 2 this morning to take bhenology data and work on our new bulse-steady bollination exberiment. All went well with Echinacea in B2, and all was made astronomically better when the Wooster team found an Andrena nest just outside of the blot! WOOHOO! This was truly a great moment in the history of the Ison lab, as Jennifer’s goal of seeing an Andrena in its home was finally combleted.

            In the afternoon, we went out to B2 again to begin measuring the blot (we got nine rows done, but they had a TON of flowering heads). The Wooster crew dug ub the Andrena nest they found earlier in the day but were ultimately unable to find any cells that hold Andrena larvae. We did end a bit late, but it is safe to say that the skills we honed today in B2 are some we will be utilizing for the entire summer!

So, I have decided to break my flog posts in two so that readers can be updated on the goings-on of the team and my personal research.

Town Hall

Saturday started off with breakfast and everyone cleaning up the mess around the place that had accumulated all week. However, most of the cleaning was done while I showered. I did many of the dishes and emptied the dishwasher but when I got out to the living room I was blown away by how quickly 7 people can clean a kitchen, dining room, and living room.

After cleaning, some people (I believe Ren, Avery, and Miyauna) went grocery shopping and others (Erin, Jay, and myself) went to a coffee shop and then bought groceries for the week.

When we returned to Townhall, Erin, Jay, Julie and I started a new game of Sundew Valley together. We had some trouble with it crashing in the beginning but we eventually got it going. Jay and Erin’s characters were accidentally wearing the same outfit (talk about a fashion faux pas…) and since I had never played before I spent ~15 minutes playing the fishing mini-game only to catch on herring and some seaweed. Despite Sundew Valleys innocent appearance the game is a lot more involved than I anticipated.

After some videogames, the whole gang watched the 2005 blockbuster hit and should-have-been-oscar-winner-for-best-picture movie, Sky High. Which some might describe as, “A clever hybrid of Harry Potter and The Incredibles”. Which I had purchased at an Alexandria gas station for $9.00.

At the end of the night some of us relaxed by watching Jeopardy episodes from the year 1999-2000. We were all amazed to see our work equipment as a part of the second place winner’s prize package.

Then everyone went to sleep because everyone minus me had to get up for a 6 am adventure to check out orchids!

Personal Research Update

For our readers that are unfamiliar, I am Stuart’s incoming Ph.D. student starting in the Fall. So, this Summer has been a lot about me exploring the tallgrass prairies and beginning the research that I will be doing for the foreseeable future.

Here is a brief-ish research statement for what I am doing this Summer:

“Parasitic plants are keystone species in many environments they’re found in and they act as keystone species by playing a role in nutrient cycling and in prairies they are hypothesized as being keystone species by keeping dominant grasses in check by suppressing their growth. However, it is unknown if parasites are keystone species in prairies and if they are, it is unknown which species serve this role. Therefore, I aim to collect seeds from many common species that could possibly serve as hosts. I will do this in order to conduct an experiment in which I grow parasites and hosts together in order to determine the effects of parasites on common plant species.

Common potential hosts I aim to collect seed from are:

Asclepias, Solidago, Poa, Bromus, Hesperostipa, Liatris, Ratibida, Rudbeckia, Artemesia, Cirsium, Galium, Carex, Viola, Dalea, Amorpha, Amphicarpaea, Gentiana, Gentianopsis, Astragalus, Lathyrus, Geranium, Lotus, Phlox, Medicargo, Melilotus, Pediomelum, Trifolium, Vicia, Calylophus, Boechera, Rosa, Heuchera, Silene, Oenothera, Geum, Achillea, Apocynum, Delphinium, Erigeron, Helianthus, Koeleria, and more.”

P. canadensis was the first plant I collected seeds from this summer.

I also collected seeds from Hesperostipa spartea (Porcupine Grass) and a handful of other host species. I have been struggling to finish collecting seeds from the parasitic Comandra umbellata (Bastard Toadflax) because many of its seeds have been eaten by some pesky granivore.

Luckily, I have been able to collect 1700 C. umbellata seeds and I am only 100 shy of my goal. Even luckier, some of the C. umbellata are beginning to flower again!

This summer has already been a fun one and full of exciting events and challenges I’ve had to overcome. Here is to many more weeks in Minnesota and me accomplishing my fieldwork goals!

Hey flog!

After a long few days of dreary weather, today was bright, sunny, and breezy. It was beautiful. Everyone got outside and worked on personal projects in the morning and we worked hard in P8 in the afternoon. and The team also got a visit from a local beekeeper today! We ended the day with a delcious watermelon and a trip to the beach- and an amazing sunset this evening.

Today commenced with a group photo, now featuring the eastern contingent of Team Echinacea!

The rainy weather limited our activities in the morning, but Stuart gave Jay, Julie and I a crash course in weeding sweet clover and bird’s foot trefoil, two weeds invading P1. The rain softens the soil and eases removal of tough tap roots. A little too much rain soaked me as I dug up my first trefoil, and after wrenching it free we fled back to Hjelm House for computer work and lunch.

After lunch we played an icebreaker game which, depending on whether you ask me or Riley, is called either Trainwreck or Shoe Game. We ran back and forth trading spots in a circle like a demented game of musical chairs and learned fun facts about one another, like who prefers to wear socks with sandals and who hates fishing.

Afterwards we trooped out to P2 to check twist ties and make sure we know where to find and how to identify every flowering Echinacea angustifolia head. We visit these plants about every other day and record every change in their condition. We write down their afflictions and celebrate their reproductive success. In short, we cherish them.

This is not the case for their close relatives, Echinacea pallida. The vigorous plants are The Enemy, and we advanced on them with gardening shears to smite their reproductive efforts. E. pallida is not native to Minnesota and could threaten the future of our familiar friend E. angustifolia through competition or outcrossing. We found that the severed heads are quite handy for fencing and flinging across the prairie.

Upon returning to Hjelm House Jay, Julie, Stuart and I took arms against a sea of trefoil and by opposing, ended them—hopefully? It’s tough to tell whether our efforts  will be sufficient, as trefoil has a nasty habit of snapping off at the shoot and leaving behind taproots from which new growth springs.

Julie and I battled side-by-side with a root growing horizontally around a stone and the mother of all trefoil. I dug about 7 inches deep in the soil trying to extract the typically threadlike root system, but when it ultimately broke in my hands it still had the circumference of about a dime.

Being plant scientists doesn’t mean we love every plant, and today was a better lesson in that than I’ve ever had before!