Monday August 12th

Hey everyone,

We started off another week with a super productive Monday. In the morning the team split up between crossing and seedling re-finds. Ilse, Gretel, and I finished all the crossing in the morning which was especially exciting because we anticipated today being our busiest crossing day. Since many plants have finished flowering by now, we’re mostly topping off those last few styles with pollen and then waiting for everything to shrivel. While a few plants have hit snafus (pollen X running out before plant Y is finished flowering), the going has been steadily smooth. The seedling re-find crew (Stuart, Marie, Dayvis, Kory, and Sarah B) managed to finish two sites this morning with only one visor. Extra impressive!

Although we’re still sad to see the first of team Echinacea depart (Sara Z on Saturday), we welcomed the return of Mike, Reina, and Pam who spent the last week at ESA. The Gustavus trio spent most of the day measuring photosynthesis with “Helga” and collecting leaves.

This afternoon we all began measuring the Big Batch section of CG1. Although a daunting amount of plants, we managed to make a serious dent and will hopefully get through all of it by the end of the week.

I’ll sign off with a grasshopper photo I took during phenology. Have a good week!