This summer, we harvested 330 Echinacea angustifolia heads from 23 prairie remnants. Remnant harvest started on August 16th and ended on September 14th, when we finally collected the last 4 heads, 3 at Steven’s Approach and 1 at Landfill West. We harvested the most heads on August 23rd, a total of 109 heads in one day. The heads are located in 15 gbags labeled RA-RP (there is no gbag RJ).
We only visited sites where we recorded phenology this summer, so we harvested from fewer sites than last year. We did not harvest from Aanenson, East Elk Lake Road, Near Town Hall, On 27, Riley, Railroad, or Town Hall.
Volunteers Luk and Sue clean rem2022 heads in the lab
After Manogya and I completed data entry on the harvest list, I inventoried all of the bags that we brought back to the lab. There were a few mysteries to solve. We had several extra heads, but they mostly turned out to be heads that were supposed to be harvested, but someone forgot to check them off on the harvest datasheet, so it looked like they were missing. However, there was one perplexing puzzle that took some sleuthing to unravel. Two different people claimed to have harvested a head with a black twist tie from plant 18066 at Landfill West. In the lab, I found two heads with black twist ties labeled 18066, but I knew that they couldn’t both be the same plant. I donned my Sherlock hat and examined all the available evidence: survey, demography, and phenology data. From the survey data, I figured out that plant 18066’s neighbor, plant 27711, also had a head with black twist tie, so one of the duplicate heads was likely from the nearby plant. The phenology data revealed that 27711’s head had white gunk on it during the summer, and it had more rows of achenes than 18066’s head. Sure enough, one of the heads was larger than the other and had a speck of white on it. Mystery solved! I removed the imposter from the bag of heads to clean.
The volunteers started cleaning the 2022 remnant heads on October 11th. They are currently working on gbag RE, bag 5 of 15, so they are making great progress.
While the volunteers and I cleaned heads for the seed addition experiment, we encountered something we don’t see every day: seed predators in Echinacea
Busted! This seed predator was still alive and chowing down on Echinacea when I found it. Noticed the holes it gouged in the achenes.The seed predators seemed to produce a thin, sticky filament that would cause achenes and chaff to attach to each other.
The heads we were cleaning were from two sites we don’t typically harvest from, Hutchings and Nice Island. We had 155 heads from each site, stored all together in three gBags, 1 for hutchings and 2 for nice island. The heads were not in individual hBags. This storage method may have made it easier for the predators to move from head to head, but it’s unclear if they were able to cross from one gBag to another.
Hutchings was the most impacted; I would estimate nearly 50% of achenes from the site had been predated. Seed predation was less common, but still present, among the achenes from nice island, with roughly 1/10 achenes being affected. I removed at least 20, most alive, a few dead, from the hutchings heads during the cleaning and enrichment processes, and maybe 5 from the nice island batched
The grubs ranged from roughly 2-5mm long, and were a peachy orange color with a dark and hard head. They resembled the seed predators we’ve observed in Liatris aspera. I removed all the seed predators I encountered from the Echinacea and isolated them in a paper bag (the Grub Hub) to prevent further damage to the achenes.
To record the flowering phenology of Echinacea, we visit plants every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning so we can estimate the flowering start and end date within 2-3 days. During peak flowering in mid-July, the full team spent the whole morning recording phenology. This year was a good flowering year for Echinacea across sites, but fortunately we reduced the number of sites and visited only a subset of plants at larger remnants and those that burned this year.
Remnant phenology is currently wrapping up for the summer. Most of the plants are done flowering now, and we have stopped visiting several of the smaller sites. Landfill West is the exception; the site burned in late May, so the plants flowered several weeks later than at other sites.
Since 2011, Team Echinacea has been studying how the presence (or absence) of the specialist herbivore Aphis echinaceae has an impact on Echinacea fitness. This summer, Kennedy and I (Emma) have been tasked with running the project. Originally, 100 heads were included in the study. This summer, only 41 plants are still present, with 17 addition plants and 24 exclusion plants. At the beginning of the summer, Kennedy and I searched to see if we could find any aphids, regardless of whether the plants were a part of the addition or exclusion treatment. We found exactly none, the same as last year. After consulting with Stuart about the conundrum, we decided to introduce a new population of Aphid echinaeceae into ExPt1, where the project is located. Multiple times a week, Kennedy and I went into prairie remnants, carefully gathered the aphids, then brought them back and placed them onto the living addition plants. Below is a graph of the aphid population growth on these 17 plants, with the red line being the average.
Most of the plants have now received between 70 and 80 Aphid echinaeceae since the 20th of July, with most plants having at least a few living each time we visit the plant. On one plant we even found an ant! Overall, it will still take some work to establish a new population, but we seem to be off to a good start.
Transporting Aphid echinaeceae in petri dishesKennedy and Emma with their petri dishes and paint brushes
Over the course of this summer, the dust project has continued! Team Dust is now on its second year of studying the effects of dust deposition on Echinacea angustifolia’s seed set, through both an experimental study (to determine if dust deposition affects seed set) and an observational study (to determine the amount of dust traveling off of unpaved roads). Now that we are over half way done with the field season, below is a brief update of what has been done so far this summer, and what is still yet to come.
Experimental Study
This summer we have 64 Echinacea heads included in the experimental study, located at the prairie remnant Nice Island. Of these 64 heads, half of them were randomly selected to receive dust treatments while the other half receive no dust. Twice a week I venture out to these heads to give the “dusty” heads their dust while the others receive none. All of these heads are located at a site where little to no dust comes in naturally. Once these heads are ready to be harvested, they will be run under an x-ray to determine their seed set. Currently we have the x-rays from last year’s heads, but not all of them have been analyzed so there is no data to report as of now.
Observational Study
The observational part of this project is about to begin! This past week, Kennedy and I assembled the dust traps (pictured below) that we are going to use to measure dust levels at varying distances from unpaved roads. We then placed these traps at two different remnants (pictured below). Over the course of the next two weeks, these dust traps will be loaded in order to collect data. The second part of the observational study, new to Team Dust as of 2022, is collecting styles from flowering Echinacea heads alongside unpaved roads. Kennedy and I managed to collect some styles on Thursday, which went well! Currently these styles are sitting in the freezer, but they will soon be analyzed under a microscope to look for dust covering them.
Overall, lots has already been done this summer, but there is still plenty left to do!
Kennedy applying a dust treatmentA dusty head!Emma applying a dust treatmentSome dust trapsThe styles sitting in their vialsMore dust trapsDust traps along a dusty road
As July comes to an end, today marks the fourth time that Alex and I have put out 39 yellow pan traps, all at randomly selected locations. This project is a continuation of previous years of data collection on pollinator abundance along gravel roadsides, and I’ve had a great time observing both the specimens we collect and the floral resources surrounding the traps. The beginning of this project required some manual labor, as each location needed to have a stake pounded into the ground.
Hard work Beez in the trap, be-beez in the trapPretty trap views (bees like views too!)
Each week, the traps go out once. I also visit every trap and take note of the floral resources that surround the trap, so that later on we can determine if there’s any correlation between the amount and types of floral resources (if any) and the amount of bees we collect. Many of the traps are adjacent to corn and soybean fields, and besides brome, there is little plant diversity. I see a lot of alfalfa and thistle, and there’s soon to be a lot of goldenrod. However, I’ve seen plenty of cool bee species, from little black bees like Lasioglossum, as well as green bees, like Augochlorella.
Straining out the bees!Beez in the strainer, be-beez in the strainerBee slay
It’s been great so far seeing how each trap differs in the specimens we collect and thinking about how this may be influenced by the surrounding area as well as the gravel road. I’m excited to see where the summer goes and how the floral resources and bees we collect might change!
Fun fact: This project is so intriguing to scientists across America (and the globe), that Nicki Minaj herself wrote her iconic song, Beez in the Trap, about it!
(Well, not really. But I listen to it every time I go out to collect the traps.)
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
Here at the Echinacea Project, we have decided that we have more than enough data to answer all of our questions about Echinacea. Echinacea angustifolia is yesterday’s news. We have therefore decided to become the Asclepias project!
Asclepias viridflora (green milkweed) is similar to angustifolia in that both are self-incompatible perennial forbs native to Minnesota’s tall-grass prairie. Not much is known about viridiflora, including how it reacts to fire. Does fire promote survival, population growth, and reproduction in Asclepias viridiflora, as it does in Echinacea? If it does, that would bolster our assumption that Echinacea is a good model organism for prairie research. It would also provide vital data on the effects of prescribed burns.
For these reasons, we are tracking green milkweed vitality in prairie remnants. Some of the sites we are looking at were burned in the fall or spring, while others have never burned. Last year, 71 green milkweeds were found across 8 remnants. This year we revisited the locations of those 71 plants, most of which were still there. The team also found 41 new plants. All together we’ve found over 80 live plants!!
Milkweed has clusters of flowers called umbels. At this point in the summer, most green milkweed umbels have senesced and fallen off, and pods are forming. We will revisit and count these pods later in the season. The data we are collecting includes status (present or not); umbel, pod, and stem count; and leaf width.
Nice big Milkweed pod.
As the only team member without a car, I’ve really appreciated rides from Daytona and Joey out to the remnants. I couldn’t ask for better partners to help me find and stake/survey milkweed.
Daytona ponders Asclepias (and life) at Hegg.Joey bears the cross at Staffanson.
Daytona, Joey, and I (Johanna) have also been taking turns naming all the new milkweed plants we’ve come across. Here is a comprehensive list:
Tedward “Teddy”
Mary Jane
Coyte
Spronkle Axil
Bahrry
Mark Watney
Björn Ironsight
Osprey
Barbra Lou
Turtle “Turty”
Jonny
Sammy Simmons
Ilina Anna
Lightning McQueen from Cars 1, 2, and 3
Masterchief from Fortnite
Markiplier “Marky Moo”
Mathilda Ulrike “Math-u”
Ferdinand
Dr. Bared Jeck
Chairman Mao
Archie from Riverdale
Brigham Young
Italian Car from “Cars”
Sam Winchester
Henry Kissingmen
Ted Krazinsky (Unabomber)
Umbelicious
Tony Hawk, Pro Sk8er
Gustavo
Neutral Radiator Beach House
Dimple-san
Not to play favorites, but…Tedward is my favorite.
Stay tuned for more Asclepias updates later this summer!
My individual project is working on collecting nectar from Echinacea angustifolia. I was tasked with figuring out what equipment is needed to collect nectar, what time of day is best to collect nectar, and what the procedure is to collect nectar. I have been working in P1 for this nectar collection data. Dr. Roy from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota came to help me learn about nectar collection and where exactly to collect the nectar from on the plant head. Next summer, the team hopes to collect pollen and nectar to assess the quantity and quality of food resources pre and post-burn.
So far, I have learned how to extract the nectar and that around 2:30-3:00 PM has produced the most nectar. Cloudy days are NOT ideal for nectar collection. The one day I collected when it was cloudy I only got 1 mm of nectar the entire morning.
As of today, I have collected 142 mm of nectar. I used different microcaps with different inner and outer diameters, so the volume is not 142 (I need to do some more math to find the volume for each amount depending on their inner diameter, but at least you get an idea of the amount that has been collected).
Me with the sweet magnifying glasses.A visitor in P1The must have equipment. Lots of pollen and painted bracts. I painted the bracts when I would come back to sample the same head so I would know which ones had already been sampled. First day, learning how to get it organized for easier collection. A more organized nectar collection field box.A microcap inserted into an anther.
Last Friday (June 15th), the crew began measuring Echinacea in our largest experimental plot, P1! This plot has 10,673 positions that we visit during the summer, so it is no small task. We had 4 teams measuring for about 3.5 hours and visited about 1,471 positions (13.7% of the entire plot!). Above is a map indicating our progress, with purple representing the segments completed.
Between June 3 and June 12 (2022), members of the Echinacea Project planted 503 Green Milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora) seedlings across four sites in Solem Township. These sites included an area south of Experimental Plot 8 (149 seedlings planted June 3), a hilltop at Hegg Lake WMA (117 seedlings planted on June 9), a disturbed area at Staffanson Prairie Preserve (117 seedlings planted on June 10), and a hilltop at Eng Lake WPA (aka eth, 120 seedlings planted on June 12).
I promise this photo contains a green milkweed seedling we planted…
We hope these seedlings grown from locally-collected seed will establish new thriving populations of this declining plant species and provide a reliable seed source for future restorations. They may even provide future research opportunities to learn about the reproductive biology and demography of green milkweed! Thanks to the MN DNR, the Nature Conservancy, and USFWS for giving us permission to plant seedlings.
