Lake Forest College and Lightscape

Today, we welcomed four undergraduate students from Lake Forest College: Alondra, Connor, Maeve, and Marina. As part of their plant biology class, they will conduct a project related to fire’s effect on echinacea reproduction. At the lab, they will gain hands-on experience for three Wednesday afternoons, and their project will culminate with a poster presentation. Today, everyone learned how to clean heads from the rem 2021 harvest. Next week, they will develop their hypotheses and hopefully practice scanning and counting achenes from remnant echinacea populations.

This evening after dark, several of us attended the Chicago Botanic Garden’s annual lightshow, called Lightscape. At night, the garden was completely transformed by holiday music, elaborate sculptures, a laser show, and even a glowing ball of yarn. It was quite impressive!