The Echinacea Project

Bee Killer Behind Bars; Claims to Have Been Railroaded

Hello, all! This is Denise. =D =D

Lani and I are starting our posters. We’re doing one that targets the field work and one that targets the lab work. We’re hoping to fill it up with mostly photos like this:

Since I got back, I’ve been staying at Carey’s house. His step-mom has a garden, and guess what I recognized? ECHINACEA! Loads and loads. ^o^ Anyway, we saw a sickly plant in her garden and were hoping for some feedback as to what it could be. There’s some discoloration on the leaves and the heads don’t look too healthy as well. Here are some photos:

=( Unhappy echinacea, yes. What could it be?

Here are some other plants from another part of her garden that look much better:

^_^

Have you seen crown rust?

Team Echinacea:

A grad student, Emme Bruns, from UMN is studying crown rust. She has been noticing heavy infections of rust on some of the Bromus and Elytrigia (Agropyron) grasses around the twin cities and was wondering if similar infections are occurring up here.

Have you seen anything that looks like a rust pathogen on either of these species?

If the pathogen is present, she would like to visit to survey disease incidence and collect isolates.

Let me know if you see anything like this–and make a mental note or note in your visor where you see it.

Thanks!

More Common Garden Invertebrates

Last week’s scandal recedes from the public eye following the disappearance of two bees from the south end in broad daylight on Thursday. Common Garden residents are now locking their doors and speculating about the identity of the killer in their midst. Well….. not all of them.

Team Chicago home safe

Hi all,
Lani, Denise and I are back in Chicago safe and sound. After such a rainy start to the day overall the drive was smooth and even included a Disney sing along. My reunion with my puppy, Raven, was filled with lots of jumping and tail wagging.

Photo of Raven from before I left for Minnesota…tried to take one tonight but she was too hyper.

Ben, Lecia, and Julie, I had a great time working with all of you and I wish you the best of luck in your future ecological endeavors. Everyone else I will see you back in Chicago or in Minnesota in the near future. Have a great rest of the summer Team Echinacea and we will keep you posted on our progress here in Chicago.
Jennifer

Plant identifying

Lecia and I have begun to identify our collections. Here’s a list of the species we found at some roadside remnants with links to their USDA PLANTS Database descriptions:

Native species

Galium boreale
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=GABO2

Heliopsis helianthoides
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=HEHE5

Anemone cylindrica
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ANCY

Anemone canadensis
http://plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch

Rosa arkansana
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ROAR3

Introduced species

Lotus corniculatus
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ROAR3

Melilotus officinalis
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=MEOF&photoID=meof_009_ahp.jpg

Medicago sativa
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=MESA&photoID=mesa_003_ahp.jpg

Further info on some of these species can be found at efloras.org and vplants.org.

Half-way through the summer

Today marks the halfway point for the summer. Five weeks down, five to go. We’ve accomplished a lot and much more remains. After a long afternoon of measuring plants, we had some watermelon and carbonated beverages to cool off, mark the 1/2way, and wish the Chicagoans well.

Three of our team members are leaving tomorrow for Chicago (Jennifer, Lani & Denise). They will keep us posted about the analysis of the bee-tracking field data and how it relates to their pollen flow study.

Here’s a photo of us on the porch of the Hjelm house today, just after lunch.

Lecia, Ben, Megan, Christine, Denise & Gretel
Julie, Jennifer, Lani. Amy & Stuart.

Common Garden Flowering Progress Report

We had a slow start to the flowering of Echinacea in the common garden for the 2008 season. Being one who gets excited about the abundance of Echinacea heads, I’m pleased to post the numbers of plants and flowering heads so far.

The total number of plants flowering in the common garden as of 17 July 2008 (which is sure to increase as we find more hiding in the tall brome or decrease as they are grazed by deer):
1027

The total number of flowering heads identified as of 17 July 2008 (many still just buds):
1868

As of 17 July 2008:
447 of the 1868 have started to flower. (They are still far from peak flowering!)

Here is a graph showing the number of heads that started to flower on each day.

Excitement on the prairie

It was an exciting day on the prairie. After a soaking morning rain, it felt hot and steamy. Just before noon the plants started flaunting their pollen and the bees took advantage. There was plant sex and bee sex and Team Echinacea jumped into the fray trying to keep up with the frenzied activity. Every team-member broke a sweat trying to keep up with all the bees. It was a crazy scene and the excitement in the air was palpable. The bees eventually outmaneuvered and outlasted us, but we had a great time. We left around 12:50 looking forward to another exciting day.

Unlike most of the shy bees, this rascal loved the cameras. She gave quite a show flying from head to head, daring us to follow. We caught her here spreading pollen all over her legs.

Bee photos

I just posted photos of prairie insect specimens from our collection, including many bees that pollinate Echinacea. Enjoy!

Here’s a photo of a specimen of Andrena rudbeckiae (Female). Click to enlarge.

So, there is a lot more to do to improve the web interface to these photos. Let me know your suggestions!

The pages are static html right now. Bianca, CBG science web design hero, made a dynamic version using MySQL and PHP. Her way is the way to go. However we don’t have a good permanent home for a MySQL database: UMN won’t allow phpMyAdmin, Bianca’s software of choice. And CBG doesn’t really support websites for scientists (yet).

More photos will follow and we’ll post more info for each specimen too. I hope to make these update when we have a dynamic, public site, but wanted to get something out now because I am submitting a paper that refers to these specimens.

Categories

Experiments