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Friends,
We’re drawing down here, folks. Today, we drove the team from the Hjelm House to work at Steven’s Approach in a single car. There, we did seedling searches, checking 18 focal plants for some of their old seedlings. There was a bit of confusion (and internal screaming) since tags there are replaced so often, and plants are mowed on the reg, but we finished by 11:30, and thankfully will have mostly easier sites remaining for seedling refinds. Yes, there were cucumbers at lunch.
In the afternoon, we hit cruise control, finishing total demography North of the Golf Course in just an hour. It turns out that the demography records at this site actually included plants from Liatris Hill, a site I haven’t visited before that we’ve mostly ignored so far this year. Man, what a pretty place it was, blanketed with sunflowers and cordgrass with leaves five feet tall, hidden from view of the roadside by a line of conifers and a hill slope. There were no flowering plants there, but several Echinacea basal plants are still alive and kicking. After finishing NGC, we returned to P1 to recheck some of the “can’t finds” from our exhaustive measuring there. We got a considerable proportion of the replants done, covering hundreds of meters and uncovering several hidden Echinacea basal plants, narrowly avoiding losing our meter sticks. Just as the aphids are slowly leaving P1, some corners of the plot are slowly being settled by paper wasps. Future re-checkers and harvesters beware.
 The team breezes through total demo at North of Golf Course without a sweat (note: that last part is not true) After work we enjoyed watermelon slices on the porch of the Hjelm House, while Roxy enjoyed eating (mostly begging for) our rinds. We enjoyed these with our hands, mouths and faces. This was in part a celebration of our new sexy bright yellow GPS-pole, which James will lovingly nurture and employ tomorrow shooting points for his independent project (see picture). For dinner in Kensington, we tried our lot as Russian peasants, eating borscht and a home-baked loaf of bread for dinner. Yes, there was ice cream. We finished the evening with invigorating games of hearts, where James won one game and Lea won another by shooting the moon. Hmm, that’s funny, I can’t remember who came in last — there must not have been a loser.
Sweet baby (and) James Finally, shout out to Laura “Puff Daddy” Leventhal, whose last day of work is tomorrow before she heads back to Akron for a wedding and school. It was fun working with Laura, who always had good jokes or propositions for odds, let us look at her burgeoning wisdom teeth at the dinner table more than once, and was generally cool in other ways. She will be writing the last in her series of hilarious and topical flog posts tomorrow. Bye, Laura!
Where is the category for “team members sleeping”?
Today was the last day for the aphids on the team. As Scott did a final assessment of all of the aphid addition and exclusion plants, he noticed many of our aphid team members were coming to the end of their season. Alas, Team Echinacea 2016 says good by to our little aphid friends, wrapping up an exciting season of aphid addition and exclusion!
In addition to working with the aphids, Laura and I finished up phenology on the remnants while James GPS’d the edges of a few more sites. I also took a look at all the plants I’m monitoring for flowering phenology at Staffanson. Most of the Liatris aspera on the east unit have started flowering, but Solidago speciosa is yet to begin. I also saw a flowering Prenanthes.
 Flowering Liatris aspera  Flowering Prenanthes After lunch, we worked out at p1, searching for “can’t finds” and staples. The thunder started about 3:15 and we wrapped up early. Back at town hall, James made an amazing dinner of fresh tomato and vegetable sauce with polenta AND pasta. We ate a particularly ripe watermelon from our CSA, and I made a blueberry cobbler with all of the remaining blueberries left behind at town hall.
 Blueberry cobbler, YUM
We are down in numbers this week. Leah, Alyson, Alex, and Jennifer headed back to Ohio last week, and Amy and Will are in Florida for the ESA meeting this week.
Even with the low numbers we’ve been very productive these past two days. On Monday, we did phenology on the few plants that are still flowering. Then people split off and worked on individual projects and aphid treatments. Ruth Shaw and Margaret Kuchenreuther, a biology professor from Univ. MN Morris, came in for lunch.After lunch we headed out to Loeffler’s Corner to do some (former) seedling refinds.
This morning, we all split up to accomplish a lot. Scott and I finished up the aphid treatments from yesterday, Laura rechecked her project plant positions, Lea went out to Staffanson to put more plants into her project form, and James GPSed some more edges. Laura and Scott also found time to measure P6. At lunch, we had a delicious chocolate cake from Gretel and Hattie. YUM! After lunch we did full demo at Tower and South of Golf Course. We headed straight to Elk Lake after work to cool down and have fun!
Unfortunately, today was my last day with Team Echinacea. Thanks for a summer full of fun, learning, and prairies!
 Teamwork makes the dream work.  Scott searches for a tag during demo.  Yay! We’ve found a tag! Saying goodbye to Roxy was the hardest. 🙁
Hi Flog!
I’m sitting in Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, taking a break from hearing about all the great work people from all over the place have been doing. I thought that this was a good time to update you on how my poster presentation went (Mostly because the convention center has free wifi and our hotel doesn’t. What?! how can it be 2016 and there not be free wifi…)!
I arrived in lovely* Fort Lauderdale Sunday afternoon, this is the first conference I have been to and It is a little overwhelming but also super exciting! I presented my poster on “The heritability of flowering time and duration in Echinacea angustifolia” last night (Monday). Lots of people stopped by and it was really fun getting to explain all of the work I had done over the past year to them. The poster session lasted for 2 hours but it felt like 15 minutes.
Amy is here with me and she is going to be presenting her poster on Thursday night!
*Lovely – 90 percent humidity and 90 degrees
Below is a link to a PDF of my poster for closer inspection!
esaposter_willreedvf-1-1-1
Hello floggy friends!
This morning, Leah and I left Town Hall to embark on a crazy road trip to Michigan. As we were driving, other members of Team Echinacea participated in the FlekkeFest 5k and witnessed history at the International Vinegar Museum. I’ve only been gone for about 14 hours, but I already miss everyone so much. To pass the time during our car trip, Leah and I shared fun stories from the summer.
Other notable moments from our trip include:
- Witnessing a “noutfit” or what others would call a “neon outfit”
- License plates from 16 different states
- Stopping at Taco Bell more than once
- Listening to “Too Good” only once and “Cold Water” four times (contrary to popular belief by members of Town Hall)
Great roommates must think alike, because as Leah was posting about what members of Team Echinacea taught us, I wanted to share what we taught Team Echinacea during our two months in Minnesota. I’d say we taught them a few valuable life lessons:
- Sometimes you just need to stop and look at all those mushrooms
- If you don’t listen to Drake or Justin Bieber during a car ride, you’re doing it wrong
- If a picture is worth 1000 words, an emoji must be worth so much more
- Not only does singing to aphids get the job done (thanks Abby for that tip), but singing to pollinators and basal plants in experimental plots also does the trick
- Anyone can learn how to cook, but it’s not a good meal unless you add at least 3 different kinds of cheese
- Prairies are pretty cool, but bogs might be better (minus the buckthorn and mosquitoes)
- Dance parties are acceptable at any time of day
- You shouldn’t settle for anything less than perfect (namely the perfect meter stick or fork size)
- Embrace being silly and awkward, because the people mind don’t matter and the people who matter don’t mind.
Finally, I’d just like to thank everyone for all the support and guidance they’ve given me this summer. I’ll never forget this amazing group of people and I can’t wait to see how everyone else’s projects go and I can’t wait to keep snapchatting everyone (*nudge nudge Town Hall fam I’m talking about you).
Catch ya on the flippity flop,
Alyson
 Peace out, Kensington! Ps- Thanks Scott for taking this adorable pic and seeing us off this morning (at the insane hour of 6am)
This morning started off bittersweet with the unwelcome, yet catchy, anthem of Too Good in the “carty par” this morning. Leah drove me, Jame, and Alyson to Leah and Alyson’s last field day. I say unwelcomed, but everyone in Town Hall knows that Drake really grew on them thanks to the persistent efforts of Alyson and Leah. I hope Alex, who was in the other car, got to listen to something just as commemorative this morning as he was driven to his last field day too.
In the field this morning, we did fun-ology on the very few remaining flowering plants and did aphid addition and exclusion. Also notable, Leah and Alyson ate their last lunch out of their communal lunch box.
 “Did you pack cheese today?” Everyone’s watery eyes weren’t the only puffy thing we experienced today because after lunch, Per, Hatti, and Patrice made cream puffs for the team. They were so delicious!
For the rest of the afternoon, we put staples in p1 and did rechecks. Leah found 7 plants and Jame found 9 plants and a meter stick!
While Leah packed for her 6am morning departure, the rest of us ventured to Barrett for some culture. We attended the Fire Prairie Children’s production of Alice in Wonderland. Hatti, Patrice, and Per all had roles and were awesome! They have been attending camp only for one week and put on a great show.
Tonight we all said our goodbyes to Leah and Alyson (Alex isn’t leaving until Sunday and will be able to join the weekend festivities with us, woohoo!) Goodbyes were a little easier for me because I will see these two lovely people back at Wooster. I am so glad that I have gotten to know them this summer and can’t wait to continue spending time with and learning things from this dynamic duo throughout the year. So far I’ve learned that yes, two people can eat that much cheese,how to survive in a bog, that Drake is Too Good for me, that someone is lying about Drake and Rhianna being a “thing”, the pure joy of dropping a slide “jelly side up”, and that even when you think you can’t, you can always eat a whole bowl of taco dip.
Today is my last flog, and tomorrow is my last field day. It’s a sad ending to an amazing summer. Today we worked on independent projects in the morning & measured P9 in the afternoon. This morning I analyzed my 42nd slide out of 236 slides. My project’s goal was to better understand what pollen loads bees are bringing to Echinacea. With the help of others (huge shoutout to Laura), I captured over 100 pollinators during early, peak, and late flowering. I brought them back to Hjelm house where they were cooled and wiped for pollen. I wiped pollen (separated by body and scope) on fuchsin jelly on glass slides and am currently counting Echinacea pollen grains in comparison to heterospecific pollen. The goal of my research was to look at how pollinator foraging behavior changes over Echinacea’s flowering season. There is still a lot of data analysis left, but thanks to Team Echinacea I gathered so much great data, thank you!
In honor of my final flog post I wanted to recap what I learned from each team member:
Amy taught me the importance of patience during research. I might not have caught all my bees within the time frame I wanted, but with patience I managed to catch enough bees for my study.
Gretel taught me that field work keeps you young at heart.
James taught me that you can’t always be nice but you should always try.
Alyson taught me that hard work pays off, especially when you cut down 20+ buckthorn trees and end up with significant data within one month! (Congratulations!)
Alex taught me how important passion is in science. When I spent 12 hours catching bees and only caught 8 I had to absolutely love my research just as much as Alex loves his.
Lea taught me the importance of positivity in the field. When you have 6 “can’t find”s in a row, or are counting over 100 stipa seeds, you have to stay positive and excited about field work.
Abby taught me how to make every piece of field work fun; whether it was signing to aphids, chopping off palida, or eating soggy pretzels.
Will taught me the difference between an earned win and a lucky win (example: settlers of catan vs. the lottery).
Scott taught me that the best thing a scientist can do is just listen.
Laura taught me the importance of helping others, because science could not exist without collaboration.
Ruth taught me that humility is a far better sign of a good scientist than any accolade.
Jennifer taught me that a great advisor lets their student struggle just enough to come to a solution on their own, but never lets their advisee drown.
Zachary taught me that you can be a scientist at any age.
Stuart taught me to keep an eye out for everything, whether it’s stipa, a seedling, or a great idea.
Best of luck in all of your future endeavors,
Leah
ps: Minnesota was lit
Good afternoon floggers, today was a busy and hot day in the lab! The air conditioner stopped working this morning, so we all got a bit of a sweat from cleaning and counting. This week has been lonely without Danny, but the volunteers are keeping up the amazing work. We are almost on the 8th bag of Echinacea heads that need to be cleaned and experiment 96_a is done being counted! I finished re-checking a second tray of achene samples, which means I have only one more tray left to re-check. Below is a picture of our current counting progress. We still have a ways to go, but every day moves us forward. Have a great rest of the afternoon floggers!
Dear Flog,
 The team comforts Roxy as she contemplates life’s transience Today was bittersweet. We began the day by assessing phenology in the remnants, a task which takes far less time now than it did a few weeks ago. Many sites are completely done flowering, so we won’t visit them any more. To make matters worse, today was Jennifer’s last day. Roxy was so upset that she hitchhiked to Barrett in a last ditch attempt to make Jennifer stay. However there were also some rays of hope today. Most notably, Lea found a shirt that Alyson had left in Staffanson two weeks ago. We thought it was gone forever! Also, Ruth and Carlee, an REU student, visited. We all had a very productive afternoon measuring hybrid plots at Hegg. The day kept getting better. After work we went and had a nice dinner at Mi Mexico, a well-decorated restaurant in Alexandria. Tomorrow, Will, Gretel, and I will head up to Pembina to check seed set of the western prairie fringed orchids that we found earlier in the summer. Hopefully it will help take my mind off of the sad thought that more team members will be leaving soon.
Yours truly,
Amy
Hey Flog!
So much happened today- Steve Ellis, a local beekeper/bee-hero came to talk to us about the work he has done advocating for bees. He has been apart of several lawsuits that aim to stop neonicotinoids from harming his bees and bees around the country! He talked about how the chemical insecticide harms the bees and affects colony survival. Along with Steve, we got some really fantastic scones.
After Steve left we ventured into the bog to pull buck thorn from Alyson’s project. There was a lot of buck thorn and I’m sure we missed some but we would have felt bad if we hadn’t left any for the goats. We piled all the buck thorn near the ’99 south garden for a bonfire. The pile was probably at least two Abbys tall or about 12 feet. Post-buck thorn we headed in for an early lunch.
P2 rechecks after lunch, which went really fast. We were finished by about 2 and then we headed home to prepare our dishes for the potluck/bonfire party. (I brought a “multi-berry” pie, though it was more of an aggregate pie). The food at the potluck was great and we had a lot of fun chatting in the screened porch away from the mosquitoes. The party was 90 percent potluck and 10 percent bonfire, which was a good ratio.
Today was the best day of the summer for me, not only did we have a great presentation from Steve Ellis and great food, but! The man, the myth, the legend: Danny Hanson came up from Lakeville to visit! I’m so excited that we will both be at the University of Minnesota in the fall.
Danny.
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