The Echinacea Project

measure plants in the PHEN plot at Hegg Lake

This afternoon we are going to measure plants in Jennifer’s Phenology plot at Hegg Lake WMA. Here is a script that makes a datasheet that assigns us rows to measure. The order is approximately 1 – 80, but they are slightly mixed up (just to keep us on our toes): measurePHENatHeggLakeRows.r

This week in pollination

If someone is able- some in the CG and some at Nice Island to be pollinated still exist.
Coreopsis palmata
In the common garden – to the east- I flagged two plants with heads that should be flowering and be able to be crossed. They are likely the only plants with heads close to being pollinated. Using a toothpick, transfer pollen from the donor head to the recipient head (red twist). Pollinate the donor head second using pollen from another plant at least 5 m away. Use a blue twist on the out-crossed head. Record the flag and the twist colors. If more twists are needed to mark the plant- go ahead!

Psoralea argophylla
There are still some plants to pollinate by the railroad crossing at Wennersborg road. They are 901, 128. The plants at Nice Island are unmarked – except the couple that are done there. (377 AND THE ONE DONE BY KATIE AND LAURA)

Solidago missouriensis
Using one complete bagged plant, pollinate one sprig or flowering branch with another from the same plant. Pollinate another sprig or flowering branch with a sprig removed from a flowering plant at least 5 meters away. Tag the self-crossed sprig with one color and the out-crossed sprig with a different color. (I used a wire- a twist will work.) Record the data as shown below the picture of the process.

For Solidago missouriensis at Nice Island:

Flag ID Self ID Sprig Outcross ID Sprig Date Site
G 11 Brown White July 18 Nice Island

The end is near

helandechfinaldataset3.csvAs all of you know katie and I are leaving this weekend to go back up to CBG, and I am hoping that Echinacea will be just about done flowering at all of my sites by then. It is looking hopeful and today I had my first site that was done flowering! I still need to tag the Echinacea at some of my sites though. I finished entering most of my data this weekend, and am very excited to see what the graphs and analysis will reveal. I am posting the cvs files for Stuart below, and some pics of a very interesting bug katie found today

corandcardfinaldataset2.csv
helandechfinaldataset2.csv

File for Stuart

let me know of you can open this one..

ExportForStats2.csv

Time-lapse time

So I think I have my basic setup for the time-lapse photography for checking out those stipa awns. Using one of Greg’s aquariums, a camera, tripod, computer and such. I’ll be able to change the humidity soon enough and really start the experiment.

Some of the stipa, just as a test

And here’s my setup. Off to the left of the aquarium is the 500W halogen light. The seeds and black felt are inside the aquarium. In front of that is the camera with a blind on the front to help knock down some glare from the front glass. Attached is the computer, which is what I’m using to control the time-lapse.

Early phenology data

There are only two plants from Steven’s Approach left in the Common Garden that have yet to finish flowering! I have the rest of the start and end dates of all other flowering plants attached to the csv file below.

ians.phenology.results.csv

Ian

Export For Stats data

ExportForStats.csv

burning permit info

This site explains the circumstances where burning permits are required in Minnesota:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/fire/questions.html

2010 Echinacea Common Garden Flowering Status

This graph summarizes the First and Last Day of Flowering for Echinacea plants in the common garden. It looks like peak flowering was July 8, 2010.

Pollinator Results!

I analyzed my data and put together a couple of tables and figures.
I do have large standard deviation error bars.. but that is due to the pollinators being so variable. Within the same species, one bee could stay on Echinacea and shrivel a ton of styles while another could spend not even a minute collecting pollen and only shrivel a few styles. But overall, I believe the data gives a sense for which bee is the most effiecient and by how much. Take a look for yourself 🙂

tables and figures.pdf

one thing that is interesting to me is that each species of bee was more sucessful in pollinating styles that had been 2 days old rather than 1 day old styles. hmmm? Maybe styles that are out for more than a day are more susceptable to shriveling..?

Also, when Gretel compiles the data for CG phenology into a figure, I will use the figure to match up dates for when I did the insect visits and which species I saw most on those days. It should be interesting because it seems to be that in the beginning of flowering and towards the end of flowering, the smaller bees such as Augochlorella appear. Whereas during the peak of flowering, Melissodes dominated and I didn’t see any Augochlorella.

-Katie

Categories

Experiments