Pollen
Scraped off of bees
But who did it come from?
Saving flowers to check which one
Matches!
—
Brimming
Vials full of
Orange, purples, yellows
Bottles glowing in a sunbeam
Dreamy
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This morning in P6, a murder occurred. The victim? A (likely) hybrid between Echinacea pallida and angustifolia. It flowered for the first time ever and Lindsey quickly decapitated it after taking data.   Top: Lindsey and her latest victim. Bottom: Echinacea angustillida (unofficially named). The pollen color is right in between that of a pallida and angustifolia plant. Magical hobbit houses to old giants. Yesterday I got to join the REU interns for their field trip to The Morton Arboretum where I was able to learn and appreciate the different variety of trees in their exhibitions. It was interesting to see so many kinds of trees and also learn more about the endangered species and the reasons why they are currently endangered. Here is a picture of the spruce plot off in the distance. It is so majestic! Unfortunately, we were not able to get off the tram and wander into the spruce tree forest. After the tram tour of the arboretum, we were able to get a tour of their lab space and learn more about the different ongoing projects. One of the REU interns there was studying traits of different urban trees in hopes of being able to determine what type of trees would thrive better in urban environments where there is a limit to resources, such as water and soil volume. In their herbarium, they had what one might call a spice rack but for plants and look what I found among their collection! Yes! Echinacea seeds! This trip was very fulfilling and definitely worth the 4-hour round trip Metra ride!       This morning half of our team set out to capture some bees! We caught a total of thirty bees of varying species. Once secured in the tube, we set the captured bees in a cooler to “calm them down.” Once the bees were sound asleep we removed pollen from their fuzzy little bodies to study further. But have no fear! The lil guys were soon returned to their home site, free and in the wild! All in all a very successful morning and we await the next time we get to wrangle some little fuzzy pollinators. It’s been under twelve hours since I last posted, so hopefully you’re not sick of me! Today has been all about catching pollinating bees in the act. Three separate teams made the rounds catching bees pollinating Echinacea. Once we caught those busy little bees, we brought them back to the fridge to cool down (so they wouldn’t sting us!) and then we worked at collecting the pollen from their legs and body. I’ll leave you with a little limerick about bees. In a meadow, I chased buzzing bees, With my cup, oh, the thrill it did tease. But those critters so sly, Dodged and soared through the sky, And I was left with just grass on my knees. Over the last few days we have had the privilege of being visited at lunchtime by the local woodchuck that we have named… Robert (Bobby) Flay. In honor of Robert, I have put together a little limerick about our little marmot. There once was a woodchuck, you see, Who couldn’t cook, no recipe. He’d chop and he’d dice, But it never turned nice, His meals tasted like old fallen tree! This morning we split. I was lucky to be part of a group with Jak where we searched for pollinating bees. We tried a new method to cool them down quicker. But, it would appear that we cooled them down a little too quickly. None of our bees survived our pollen collection. They made the ultimate sacrifice for science! In the afternoon we bagged and collected pollen, then stacked our discarded data sheets in a pile that reached the height of the International Space Station. We look forward to reaching the Moon by next week! Harrison  We had a dreary, drizzly day in Douglas county, but that didn’t stop the bugs and other critters from enjoying the cool weather. Other critter sightings from the day include and are not limited to: deer, snakes, chipmunks, geese, ducks and other various birds, stink bugs, dragonflies, crickets, lots of mosquitoes and flies, and of course Team Echinacea members. On Kensington gravel roads the cars did yield As they watched team echinacea move through the field Knees high with measured steps, “Maybe they are dancing?” Heads on a swivel with eyes alert, “Where are they Glancing?” This way of walking may look funny But you wouldn’t want to squash the plants now would you honey? I call this walk the Echinacea Stomp It helps us tread lightly on the prairies where we romp It’s role in our practice in positively necessary I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not work in a cemetery  We went on a wild hunt this morning. Team Echinacea (or euthanasia/youth in Asia) members were prepped with pruners, pollinators exclusion bags, and flags. Everyone worked together to find Echinacea! The summer team learned how to record data using our handy visors ( a memory of the 90s). We then went to place pollinator exclusion bags on Echinacea pallida. Readers, please note that E. pallida is not the same as our beloved Echinacea angustifolia. Height is one key difference we use to distinguish the two plants. Angustifolia is a short king. Afterward, we went on a decapitation spree. See below to view a picture of our winnings. Members of the team were enjoying seeing E. Pallida fall off its petal-stal.    Today the team took Echinacea Demos. We got trained in on the different scenarios we could see in the field and got to work. We set pollinator bags on the twenty closest Echinacea Pallida plants to a random point, taking demos as we went, afterwards we decapitated any other Echinacea Pallia nearby. All was right in the world during lunch, but halfway through updating our team norms the sky looked very gray and the thunder got quite loud. We moved to the porch and it started raining. I’m sure the plants were thrilled. Many members spent the afternoon working on their projects. |
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