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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 If you stacked all the datasheets we use for pollen and nectar collection in one pile, it would circle the Earth 2.6 times. Even with all these datasheets, we’re happy to report we’ve made strides to stay organized and work efficently. Huzzah! Much hubub around Hjelm this morning. After a mishap with some duplicate datasheets, members of team echinacea put on their thinking caps to resolve some pollen and nectar mysteries. Using clues like handwriting, date, parsimonious location in tube stands, we put this case to rest. And we won’t get fooled again. The goats also arrived over the weekend. I can’t help but wonder if they had anything to do with this….   We started our day off by splitting into teams and heading out to collect pollen from a few Echinacea heads. Daytona and his team had a volunteer trying to hitch a ride to the site on the side of the truck (a very adorable volunteer at that). The would be tiniest member of team Echinacea was removed safely due to a lack of sufficient credentials and inability to meet BF standards.
Once we finished out the morning collecting pollen we headed back out in the afternoon to collect nectar and I saw this echinacea with a large head that looked like a strawberry. Though tempted, I did not taste to see whether it was an echinacea or a strawberry.  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. A beetle was seen allegedly stealing pollen from Echinacea Angustifolia this morning at Staffanson Prairie preserve. The insect’s motives are currently unknown and the suspect is still on the loose.  Witnesses say the crime occurred around 9:40, when the critter began apparently attacking Angustifolia’s anthers unprovoked. “It was like nothing I’d ever seen,” said Amorpha Canascens, Angustifolia’s neighbor. “My forby friend was just going about their business trying to reproduce when this cranky creature started pocketing all their pollen for itself.” Officials have reported that 2023 is a relatively low flowering year for our favorite prairie flower in the area, so Angustifolia may not have had many mates anyway. Still, they would have liked to have had a chance to reproduce. “A whole day of pollen production wasted! This is going to throw off my synchrony stats for sure,” Angustifolia said. Despite the hardship, Angustifolia remains committed to their goal. “I still have some more flowering days in me yet,” they said. “And for every selfish beetle, there’s a benevolent bee to help me out. Because in the prairie, we look out for each other.” |
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