The lab was buzzing today as we bee-stowed Mike, one of our loyal volunteers, with an official Achene County of Echinacea Empire Passport! This celebration marks Mike’s return from Bee Land, where he has been residing since this past September.
The cover of an official Achene County passport. You’re a lucky citizen if you can get your hands on one of these.
For the past many months, Mike has been working tirelessly on pinning our bee specimens for the Yellow Pan Trap project. This project tracks the changes over 20 years in bee abundance and species composition along roadsides in western Minnesota. You can read more updates on the Yellow Pan Trap project here!
As Achene County’s Passport Specialist, I got to present Mike with his honor.Trying to keep a steady hand as I apply the official visa stamp.
Mike has been working on the samples we collected during the 2022 field season, and just a few weeks ago he finished pinning 789 bees! I can’t bee-lieve how many specimens that is!
The contents of Mike’s passport after the official visa stamping. Please notice the subtle details of the Achene County watermark.
The pinning project required steady hands, an attention to detail and the extensive knowledge of bee identification; all characteristics that Mike has! He spent many hours with the microscope sifting through vials of insects.
From left to right: Mike (elated recipient), me (Lindsey, honored stamper), Wyatt (talented ink pad bearer), and Stuart (head of Achene County, striking a Vanna White-esque pose).
No Achene County celebration is complete without, you guessed it, a sweet treat! The most famous baker in all the land, Alex, crafted a beautiful honey cake drizzled with chocolate and surrounded by pear slices. The ornamental bees on the top of the cake are made up pears (for the body) and dark chocolate shards (for the wings).
I could drone on and on about how good this cake was. It almost made we want to do a waggle dance, but that felt inappropriate given the species of bees we collect.
We are so excited that Mike is no longer a solitary worker bee! We are also excited to send all of Mike’s specimens over to Zach at the University of Minnesota for identification.
The slicing of the cake for all citizens to enjoy. The cake looks particularly similar to our randomizing wheel pictured below Mike’s arm. Coincidence? You tell me.
If you get the chance, please welcome back Mike to the Echinacea hive!
Last week, the Chicago Botanic Garden ended their annual orchid show and opened up all their plants for purchase to garden members and employees! Alex and I ventured to the sale at 10 am last Thursday to find a long, looping line that weaved throughout the Regenstein center. We waited about 25 minutes to reach the beginning of the line. We were not prepared for the carnage we were about to witness.
Elbows were flying, emotions were high, plants were abundant. There was a good deal on tiny Phalaenopsis, 2 for $10. At one point, a man tried to purloin Alex’s beautiful orchid while she went to return a shopping basket, and I had to protect the plant from danger. Alex described the ordeal as “a mad house” and “chaos”, and I definitely agree with that assessment.
You can’t tell, but I’m smiling REALLY big because of my orchid purchases.
Nobody tell Jared, but I walked (or, more like ran) out of there with 7 orchids (some to give to family and friends, and one or two for myself). Alex ended up with 3 stunning orchids as well!
The line to check out was slightly calmer, though equally as long as the line to enter the sale. Many people were becoming agitated, having to wait in line and carry their heavy load of orchids. Alex noticed that each cash register had a number (as you can see in the photo below) and each number was a different font! How silly!
Calm after the storm (sort of) while waiting in line to purchase our orchids.
For anyone wanting to brave the orchid sale in future years, my only advice is to prepare for battle.
Orchids in a ball, orchids on a post, orchids in a spiral, orchids in the water, orchids in a pot, orchids through a lens. How many ways can you imagine displaying an orchid? This week, Lindsey and I visited Orchids Magnified at the Botanic Garden, and we saw orchids in all these orientations and many more. I was amazed by the orchids’ astonishing range of color and shape. It makes me wonder about their evolutionary history.
The orchid show staff night also included free food. Lindsey tried the ramen, and she reported, “It had many tasty vegetables and the teeniest mushrooms. However, it could have used some spice and they only had forks”. I sampled the salad, which contained an orchid flower. It felt wrong to eat one after looking at so many, but I had to try it. I expected a flowery flavor like jasmine, but it was rather bland and not much different in taste from a lettuce leaf. In short, I don’t recommend snacking on orchids if you attend the show.
Two weekends ago, Alex and I ventured into the heart of downtown to witness the annual dyeing of the Chicago River! I knew of this tradition prior to being in Chicago, so I was excited to witness the event in person!
The origin of the dyeing began in 1955 when Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley took office and began efforts to clean up sewage leaks in the river. A green dye was implemented to determine the source of the waste. Later, Daley proposed using the same dye to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day; however, the ambitious mayor wanted to try and dye parts of Lake Michigan green instead of the river! Eventually, Daley was persuaded by friend and business manager of the Chicago Plumbers Union to stick to the river for the holiday festivities. In 1962, Chicago city workers added almost 100 pounds of an oil-based dye to the river, beginning an annual tradition.
With festivities beginning at 10 am, Alex and I arrived early in the city and grabbed some breakfast. We made our way to the river around 9 am, and all the surrounding was packed! Luckily, we found a clear view tucked behind an Apple amphitheater where a presentation about the latest Apple technology was being given prior to the dyeing.
Every year, members of the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local Union 130 change the river to a bright, emerald green. These days, the dye used is a top-secret vegetable-based formula supposedly safe for the environment. We were surprised that the dye is actually a bright orangeish red powder! One boat releases the dye while a few other boats navigate the river and mix the dye.
Following the river dyeing is the annual St. Patricks’ Day parade. We saw many kilts, bagpipes, and even a marching band from Minnesota!
Bagpipes galore!
After a tiring day of St. Patrick’s Day festivities, we stopped to get some deep dish pizza.
The emerald green color only lasts in its brightest state for a few hours. However, I returned to the river this past weekend and hints of green still lingered!
A new ice cream store just opened in Morris! Understandably, Mia, Lindsey, and I had to check out its grand opening. Just Chillin’ serves Bridgeman’s ice cream, and we tried the Wolf Tracks, Carmelicious, and Banana Buttercup. The first two flavors passed our rigorous ice cream evaluations, but Mia described the Banana Buttercup as “interesting” in true Minnesotan fashion, which means it wasn’t very good.
The ice cream gang
Since Lindsey had never been to Morris, I had to give a full tour of town. We checked out the creepy, derelict florist shop and drove through the University of Minnesota-Morris campus. We did not spot any horses on campus, unfortunately.
Just chillin’ on the porch swing
Next, we visited the West Central Research and Outreach Center. We wandered through the horticulture garden and found some suspicious ornamental orange Echinacea, which Mia identified as Echinacea purpurea. We also discovered a porch swing and a croquet game. The most challenging obstacle required us to hit the ball up an incline and through a hollow log. Lindsey was a pro croquet player, but Mia and I struggled, and it took us more tries than we would like to admit. If anyone challenges us to a croquet tournament, I’m placing my bets on Lindsey.
Hole in one!Mia struggles with the hollow logAn exhausting ordealThe croquet champion
My research interests are in how plants interact with their surrounding organisms and environment. And in this pollination biology perfectly is nesseled quite nicely. I am particularly interested in studying how disturbance affects plant pollinator interactions. I have enjoyed using molecular work to follow where pollen is moving in populations of plants.
Statement
I have been working as a research intern with the Echinacea Project since the summer of 2020! Wow how time flies when you are having fun! I will only be on the team for part of the summer this year as I am moving on to a new position at Michigan State! I am very excited to be around for the next month, planning on getting into some good trouble! In my spare time I like to knit, embroider, bake and practice yoga.
Jared, Alex, Lindsey, and I have now been in Douglas county, MN, for around a week give or take getting things ready for the start of the field season tomorrow. This includes a big supply run. Today Alex and I had some fun visiting five different stores in Alexandria (hereafter Alec (I know it is spelled Alex but that gets confusing once Alex (the person) is involved)). The least fruitful of these stops based on items crossed of lists was Fleet Farm. Fleet Farm was the most fruitful in fun! We had some good fun with their “big hat” selection. Lindsey is the only one in the Elk Lake house who didn’t have a “big hat” so Alex and I picked one up for her. But we wouldn’t dare choose for her so I modeled the different “big hats” and Alex sent photos to Lindsey and she chose which of the big hats she wanted. Now all members of the Elk Lake House have big hats and we all can be protected from the sun in style.
“this one has mesh at the top” (later determined this is jareds big hat)“mesh at the top in beige”“lookin’ hat”“the biggin” aka my new hatBig sun hats all dermatologist approvedLindsey the newest member of the big hat club in the beige “lookin’ hat”
THEN when we were leaving in the parking lot we ran into Sophia! (not literally everyone is ok) What a funny coincidence I guess Alec isn’t that big but still hilarious!
Moral of the story: let your big hat be a personality trait, and post silly things on the Flog
The west unit of Staffanson burned this spring, so we expect a multitude of flowers this year. When Jared, Lindsey, and I visited Staffanson to stake random points on Wednesday, we noted which plants were flowering after the burn. Here’s what we found, from A to Z:
This week, the weather looked promising in Minnesota, so Stuart, Jared, and I drove up to Minnesota on Wednesday to prepare sites for burning. On Thursday morning, Jared and I mowed burn breaks at the Andropogon pilot plot and remnants waa, mapp, and nwlf. After lunch, we were loading up the vehicle with more supplies at Hjelm when we heard a loud crash in the direction of Highway 27. We wondered what it was, and when we drove down the road, we discovered that a semi-truck full of corn had tipped over just south of p8! Three people had stopped to help, but the driver was still trapped inside the cab. Fortunately, he had been wearing his seatbelt. Stuart and Jared stayed to help while I drove back to Hjelm to find a ladder. By the time I returned, they had broken the front window and helped the driver out. Soon, lots of emergency vehicles arrived, so we continued on our way to Landfill.
Corn catastrophe!
The spilled corn was no ordinary cargo – it was worth $8 a bushel! The truck had dumped several thousand bushels, so a clean-up crew was sent to salvage the wreckage with a corn vacuum. They sucked up the corn and transferred it to new semi-truck. By the end of the day, they retrieved most of the corn, but there is still a glimmer of yellow in the grass.
Corn rescue operation
The corn vacuum
On a brighter note, the pasqueflowers are blooming at Loeffler’s West. We ended the day on Thursday by mowing breaks and cutting brush at South of Golf Course. There is about an hour of work left at that site. Overall, it was an eventful day – and we hadn’t even started burning yet!
Today was our first day with the entirety of Team Echinacea at the field site! For the team's first day, we visited Staffanson Prairie and Hegg WMA to better understand the history of the landscape we work on. https://t.co/paIfsLvSts
Today we're highlighting Blaire Reuter, a student from West Central Area High School who will be working with Team Echinacea this summer! Read more about Blaire here: https://t.co/DlSNvMw5fdhttps://t.co/LIZOBxu1qv
