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When we arrived to East Town Hall, Matt commented on the ubiquitous brome, and scarcity of flowering plants which was especially evident after our visit to Steven’s Approach. Matt immediately noted that there were trees surrounding a wetland area. Matt posited that the presence of this wetland area has influenced the management regime. Before even seeing the sign which confirmed his hypothesis, Matt recognized that this area that this area is probably managed by Ducks Unlimited for wetland health, not prairie restoration efforts.
Matt couldn’t hide his disappointment when he didn’t see any Echinacea angustifolia amidst the gently rolling hills of this site. His happiness, and mine, was restored when we noted the presence of lead plant, a plant which indicates healthy prairie. We will hold out hope for the purple cone flower, and look forward to returning to this site.
6/18/2015 –10 am
As I walked up to Loeffler’s Corner, I approached from the north, over the small hill created by the train tracks. At first glance, the southwest corner looked like any random piece of uncultivated land in the area. The brome and Poa were most visible from the 55, as the edges of the road were higher than surrounding land. There was a relatively short downward slope away from the road that gave way to a nice patch of prairie remnant. Walking closer to the edge of the remnant it became clear that the brome only dominated the raised edges of the road. In the depressed flatter area there was a diversity of species, some of which were prairie natives. First, I noticed the pink-hued prairie rose rising out of the assorted grasses, signaling the potential for other native plants. There is an old barbed wire fence about 20m from the road, parallel to the 55, that might create a boundary, but I decide to explore both sides of the fence anyway. There are a few trees a bit down Sandy Hill Rd, south of the 55, and one tree in the area between the fence and the 55, but very few trees overall. I begin to notice tall grass stems from the last summer season, and wonder which native grasses they might represent. I don’t wee any Echinacea angustifolia between the 55 and the fence, but I do see some porcupine grass, some yellow flower that looks to be from the Asteraceae family, a clover that may be native, and a few lead plants. I begin to look closer at the grasses and notice Dicanthelium and some bunches of grass that I assume are native. Overall, the area is slightly sloped and hilly. Moving south down Sandy Hill Rd, I notice brome and Poa are generally less visible away from the roadsides. I can see some patches of goldenrod, and in the distance some flowering wild parsnip. I look closer as I step into the remnant, and I see some echinacea plants! I move back to the road and start thinking about the potential history of this plot. Because I see less brome and Poa away from the roadside, I assume the area may have burned at some point in the recent past. I also wonder if the area was ever plowed. In general the area seems more hilly than most fields and I see some rocks which indicate that the area may not be a former field. In an attempt to asses the overall size of the remnant I move up the hill, southward down Sandy Hill Rd, just past a small crop of trees. From this vantage, I notice there is a clear southern boundary to this remnant. Beyond the trees is what appears to be an old field densely covered with alfalfa, brome and sweet clover. I see almost no evidence of native plants this far south. Therefore, this remnant is significantly larger than Bill Tom’s Gate but definitely much smaller than Staffenson Prairie Preserve. It looks to me like Loeffler’s Corner is a promising prairie remnant tucked between the railroad tracks and an old field.
-Steven’s Approach-
A profile of Prairie as observed by Ali Hall
Written by Matt Olhoft
“My impression is that the landscape has been carved out to make the road”. This was Ali Hall’s first thought as we stopped by Steven’s approach, a small prairie remnant located on Wolley Lake road. Steven’s approach is typical of most field approaches, being about 30 feet wide by about 40 feet long, just big enough to connect a field to a road bed. The field approach is bordered by a wheat field on the west and the road on the east.
Ali noted that there was Echinacea Angustifolia seen right away. Later the realization came that the field approach was loaded with Echinacea and that there may have been as many as 100 metal echinacea tags located right on the field approach. In fact, it was difficult to even stand in one place and not step on Echinacea. Several are setting flowers and will be in full bloom soon. Echinacea plants were in almost every square foot of the field approach.
In further observations, Ali noticed was that there were no rocks or trees present. “The area is kind of prairie like, but not really”, she said. There were several flowering plants seen, and they seem to be located on the upslopes along the ditch side and the field side. The majority of these flowering varieties seen to be birdsfoot trefoil, prairie rose, and alfalfa.
Some discussion ensued between Ali and myself as to the reason Echinacea loved this approached so much, even though it repeatedly gets run over by large equipment. We speculated that perhaps it was the soil type used to build the approach that may be a factor in why they are choosing this area.
Turning right onto Unity Drive from Highway 27 you’ll quickly come upon a small patch of remnant prairie just off the right side of the road. The patch is squeezed in between a tree line and the heavily mowed roadside, and at first glance looks to be primarily invasive grasses. Brome, poa, and Indian grass–all non-native–clearly dominate. And creeping down from the tree line is a fair amount of poison ivy that actually seems to overtake the grasses up closer to the trees. We saw no evidence of the pale and narrow leaves of the Echinacea angustifolia poking up in between the grasses. Slightly disappointed with the apparent lack of diversity and absence of native species in this unassuming roadside patch, we were about to walk away when we spotted the soft metallic green of some leadplants crowning the top of the incline by the tree line. These native legumes are a sign of a healthy prairie, and finding them was without a doubt the redeeming highlight of our encounter with this otherwise sad patch of prairie.
Upon returning to the research base just down the road and showing the picture we took of the site to Stuart, we found out that much of the remnant had very recently been mowed and the patch we were examining was smaller than it had been even since Stuart’s last visit–a disappointing fact added to our investigation. We hope that this ever-shrinking prairie remnant sees better days soon.
Snapshot of “South of Golf Course” prairie remnant off of Unity Drive and Highway 27.
My, oh my how time flies! It seems hard for me to believe that today is already my last day. Working with Stuart, Gretel, the Echinacea Project volunteers, and the rest of Team Echinacea over the past year has been a wonderful experience. I have learned a tremendous amount and I feel very fortunate that I had the opportunity to spend time working on such a great project with such a terrific group of people!
Keep of the good work and good luck Team Echinacea 2015!
– Jared
We are in the process of reviewing many excellent applications for research internships. Thanks to references who sent in letters of recommendation! Thanks to all applicants–we will contact you soon.
Meanwhile, Jared has returned for a field trip to California, Stuart finished grading final papers, we are preparing for the SER meeting, and our citizen scientists continue clean heads, count achenes, and take random samples for x-raying. Yay team!
We are starting to review applications for summer research internships for undergraduates (REU). Get your application in! We’ll accept applications until positions are filled.
Apply!
https://echinaceaproject.org/summer-reu-internship-2015-ech/
We arrived at the Botanic Garden on Monday and had a tour of the labs and a discussion with Stuart to introduce us to the Echinacea Project. We began our work by cleaning 82 Echinacea angustifolia heads, separating the top 30 achenes and the bottom 30 achenes. The rest of the achenes were labeled as mid or unknown (if we did not know the location the achenes came from). Once the top and bottom achenes were separated out, we affixed them to sheets in preparation to x-ray.
Graduate students and post docs shared information on their research and advice on graduate school options. Lynnaun introduced us to his graduate research involving fungus on orchid roots. Evelyn discussed her path to working at the Chicago Botanic Garden as a post doc researcher, including her PhD research on ferns and what type of work is available after getting a PhD. Rob shared his graduate research on the effect of buckthorn invasion in oak savannas on the ectomycorrhizal community. One evening after our work at the gardens, we attended a journal club for the graduate students who work in the labs at the Botanic Garden and attend Northwestern University. Jessa discussed with us her time spent after under-grad working in an arboretum and how that led to her involvement in graduate research here at the Botanic Garden.
Looking forward to next week!
– Emma and Jocelyn
Just as the children in the the classic film “The Sound of Music” said their goodbyes, I must also say mine. Unfortunately, my time with the Echinacea Project has been abruptly cut short, but such is life. I cannot think of anything that could have made this summer any better. We laughed, we cried, and we laughed some more. Everyday was a new adventure with a different challenge to overcome, but not even the toughest obstacle could bring down our team. We truly were a team. But even more than that, we were a family, in every sense of the word. We grew together, cared for each other, and challenged each other to reach our highest potential. I will never forget this experience, nor the friends I made along the way. As this summer comes to a close for the rest of the team, I hope everyone will view this ending with a positive outlook rather than with negativity. Yes, this is the finish of a wonderfully awesome situation, but with every ending comes a new beginning. And with every beginning comes opportunities for novel experiences and self-growth. So as I say my last farewell, let me leave you with this famous quote by Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
One of my projects this summer was monitoring the flowering phenology of Echinacea pallida in the restoration east and southeast of the parking lot at Hegg Lake Wildlife Management Area. When compared with Echinacea angustifolia flowering phenology, this will help us assess the temporal extent of the opportunity for hybridization between these species.
There were 19 flowering heads on 16 plants. The figure below illustrates the flowering periods of the 17 heads for which I could assess start and end dates (two heads finished flowering before I started monitoring). I define flowering period as the period from the first day of male florets to the last day of female florets. I estimated the last day of female florets based on patterns of flowering and style persistence. Error bars indicate the range of possible end dates (last day florets observed to first day no florets observed).
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