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Harvest
Today, we began the harvest season — cultivating the heads of Echinacea that are soon to drop their achenes. These heads are harvested so their achenes (which may house seeds) can be counted, a way to quantify the reproductive output of individual plants. These can be used in an aster analysis to estimate fitness of individuals, but there are plenty of other ecological and morphologically interesting questions that the seeds can help answer, such as how effectively flowers have been pollinated. We harvested this morning in P1 and the 99 south garden, clipping and storing a modest total of 48 heads. But first — we spent a little bit of time herding the goats between paddocks in the backyard. For what it’s worth, we lost zero goats and endured zero shocks.
 Jame is a miner for a heart of gold… Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
We came dancing across the highway, with our clippers and our boards… This brought us to P2, where we spent most of the afternoon, and maybe a little bit of the evening. Here, like in P1, we checked the status of every single head in the plot for the signs (dead cauline leaves, brown involucral bracts) or for loose achenes. However, P2 had over four times as many heads to check as P1, making for a long afternoon. It seems like P2 was on a slightly earlier flowering schedule than P1, for we think that we had to harvest nearly half of the heads we came across. Amy and I worked for about four hours and only managed to move through 13 rows of plants, some of which we enlisted Lea to help with. I don’t remember what exactly we said, but I remember laughter — perhaps at this macabre reminder of our own mortality, or perhaps because we were carrying around a shopping bag with more than 100 crisp flower heads in it.
Old man, take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you After the Gold Rush
Lea made excellent pesto tonight with some of our leftover fennel and sunflower seeds, while Amy and I went to Morris to pick up the CSA. At dinner we went on a journey through the past, talking about Team Echinaceas from past and present, then finished off our evening with ice cream. Our aching bones and weary fingertips required rest, so we retired early and will sleep ’til the morning comes.
Regards,
Scott “Southern Man” Nordstrom
While much of Team Echinacea 2016 has returned to school (with Gretel, Hattie, and Roxy being our most recent members to say goodbye) the few of us remaining have decided it’s still time for some summer fun. So, today we started the day by sleeping in, eating various homemade breakfasts, and relaxing a bit more. As the morning chill burned off and the sun came out, we decided on a plan. The main activity of the day? Visiting the Douglas County Fair! We headed out in the early afternoon. Take a look at a few of the things we saw!
 Each building had many interesting art pieces and exhibits. But what does this one mean?  The kids whose work is shown above may be talented photographers, but what is all this Echinacea purpurea doing in a Douglas County Fair photo contest? Echinacea angustifolia is actually native to Douglas County, unlike Echinacea purpurea!  Scott takes time to enjoy the Minnesota DNR building that is filled with exhibits on wildlife of the region. After the four of us explored this exhibit, we all spun the pollinator wheel and won posters after answering questions about native pollinators!  Here you see James and Amy depicted in this modern piece, “Sweet Corn is Summer”  James and Lea think real hard about what part of the goat the “poll” might be- they struggle less with “teat”.  Amy and Lea shown here as part of a performance art piece. “Just keep swimming with 4H” explores the roles of two young women accidentally caught in the current of the local big bass, 4H.
After our fun day at the fair, we shopped for our weekly groceries and drove back to Kensington. The weather today was truly fair, and the fair was truly wonderful- the perfect end to a great week!
Efficiency and good data are two of our major goals at the Echinacea Project. Today we achieved the efficiency part, and hopefully while we were efficient we collected some good data. We started off the day with seedling refinds in big batch. After our work today, there are only fifteen more segments, and we’ll have hopefully found all the surviving plants in P1. Scott calculated we have somewhere around a 0.675 % chance of no rain, however we realized our luck was quickly running out. We decided to head away from the rain to the east and attempt to do total demography at East of Town Hall, however as soon as we put the GPS together it began raining. After eight plants, we called it quits and headed back for some computer work. I was able to finish my code for easily calculating how far a plant is away from a habitat edge.
Lunch was eaten in cold silence with a few sparse comments on how 68 degrees shouldn’t and usually doesn’t feel so cold. Roxy lighted the mood by taking out her squirrel jerky, which she had been saving for her last full day in Minnesota. This prompted comments as to why someone would eat something that has been dead that long. Stuart didn’t know why, but he in turn wondered why people would drink kombucha. This elicited discontented mumblings from our resident kombucha lovers. I’m still in the dark as to what exactly kombucha is, but I know it’s alive and I generally don’t like to drink live things.
In the afternoon we completed demography of East of Town Hall, Nessman, Bill Tom’s Gate, Landfill and Around Landfill. Sadly we learned that today was Gretel’s last day. We had so little warning of this that Will compared it to ripping of a bandaid: painful and quick. We eventually had to say goodbye to Gretel, Hattie and Roxy. I’m still unsure of how we’ll sync the visors without Gretel, but we’ll have to manage. I hate to leave you on that sad note, but I must.
The refs are reviewing the stake files. Looks like they’ll be delaying the demo due to rain.
Hi Flog,
It’s great to be back in Minnesota after a muggy and fun week at ESA in Ft. Lauderdale. On Thursday, I presented my poster, “Two temporal scales of reproduction affect mating opportunity in long-lived perennials.” The poster was displaying work that I did this past year looking at the 11-year phenology dataset we have from the individuals in p1. The question I tried to answer, basically, was whether it flowering on a high-flowering day or in a a high-flowering year was more important for an individual’s number of opportunities to mate. For example, this year is a low-flowering year in p1, whereas last year was a high-flowering year. Would it be better to flower on the population’s peak date of flowering this year or to have flowered off peak last year? It turns out that in this system, the year is more important relative to the day. I think this is because all flowering within a season is synchronous enough that most individuals don’t totally miss out on opportunities to mate, even if they are early or late flowering. I still have some work left to do on my analysis, but it was super helpful to hear what questions people had and get some useful insights as well!
 Here’s me with my poster
Here’s a link to my poster if you want to take a closer look!
I’ll get to the topic presented in the title, but first I’ll give you a quick recap of our day in The Birthplace of America. Laura left this morning (the unearthly hours of the morning), and we will miss her and her stick shift driving skillz. We spent the morning relaxing. I cheered on USA in the Olympics, specifically in sailing. I promise it’s more interesting than it sounds.
As you can tell, there wasn’t going to be much of note to write about today. Until we experienced an enlightening dinner conversation, I was going to tell you about fridge phenology. Yes, with only four Echinacea still flowering we are missing it. But that was before our local expert on fiber, Lea, began what was to be a life changing conversation.
Lea suggested that eating the recommended daily fiber intake was nigh impossible, so I looked up my daily suggested fiber intake. You too can do this on the USDA website. It recommended I eat 38 grams of fiber a day. It was not until later I realized how much this was. Helpfully, the USDA also suggested that I have over 50 grams of protein a day and very surpr
isingly suggested I have 0 grams of arsenic in my diet. Being the curious budding scientists we are, we played a game called guess the amount of fiber a vegetable contains. We were having braised leeks for dinner, so we quickly found out that your average 89 gram leek contains only 1.6 grams of fiber. If you do the math, I would have to eat over 23 leeks a day to satiate my fiber needs. You must be thinking, “Wait, there must be a better way to get my fiber.” I’m sorry to say after searching the fiber content for over 5 vegetables (a massive sample size if you would like my opinion), nothing had a great amount of fiber. An average medium size potato (213 grams to be precise), contains 4.7 grams of fiber while a large potato (369 grams) contains 8 grams of fiber. That is, as Scott would say, some basic math. This seemed like a lot to me until I realized I would have to eat over eight potatoes a day to satisfy my needs. That’s 1722 grams of potatoes or, for those of you who like the imperial system of measurement, 3.7 lbs of potatoes a day. We now arrive at the conundrum of our discussion of nutrition. How does one eat 23 leeks in a day and still manage to eat enough protein? We tried to discover this secret of nutrition, but then realized we would be better off just eating some ice cream and ending our day on a high note.
A local sunflower patch
Friends,
We’re drawing down here, folks. Today, we drove the team from the Hjelm House to work at Steven’s Approach in a single car. There, we did seedling searches, checking 18 focal plants for some of their old seedlings. There was a bit of confusion (and internal screaming) since tags there are replaced so often, and plants are mowed on the reg, but we finished by 11:30, and thankfully will have mostly easier sites remaining for seedling refinds. Yes, there were cucumbers at lunch.
In the afternoon, we hit cruise control, finishing total demography North of the Golf Course in just an hour. It turns out that the demography records at this site actually included plants from Liatris Hill, a site I haven’t visited before that we’ve mostly ignored so far this year. Man, what a pretty place it was, blanketed with sunflowers and cordgrass with leaves five feet tall, hidden from view of the roadside by a line of conifers and a hill slope. There were no flowering plants there, but several Echinacea basal plants are still alive and kicking. After finishing NGC, we returned to P1 to recheck some of the “can’t finds” from our exhaustive measuring there. We got a considerable proportion of the replants done, covering hundreds of meters and uncovering several hidden Echinacea basal plants, narrowly avoiding losing our meter sticks. Just as the aphids are slowly leaving P1, some corners of the plot are slowly being settled by paper wasps. Future re-checkers and harvesters beware.
 The team breezes through total demo at North of Golf Course without a sweat (note: that last part is not true) After work we enjoyed watermelon slices on the porch of the Hjelm House, while Roxy enjoyed eating (mostly begging for) our rinds. We enjoyed these with our hands, mouths and faces. This was in part a celebration of our new sexy bright yellow GPS-pole, which James will lovingly nurture and employ tomorrow shooting points for his independent project (see picture). For dinner in Kensington, we tried our lot as Russian peasants, eating borscht and a home-baked loaf of bread for dinner. Yes, there was ice cream. We finished the evening with invigorating games of hearts, where James won one game and Lea won another by shooting the moon. Hmm, that’s funny, I can’t remember who came in last — there must not have been a loser.
Sweet baby (and) James Finally, shout out to Laura “Puff Daddy” Leventhal, whose last day of work is tomorrow before she heads back to Akron for a wedding and school. It was fun working with Laura, who always had good jokes or propositions for odds, let us look at her burgeoning wisdom teeth at the dinner table more than once, and was generally cool in other ways. She will be writing the last in her series of hilarious and topical flog posts tomorrow. Bye, Laura!
Where is the category for “team members sleeping”?
This morning started off bittersweet with the unwelcome, yet catchy, anthem of Too Good in the “carty par” this morning. Leah drove me, Jame, and Alyson to Leah and Alyson’s last field day. I say unwelcomed, but everyone in Town Hall knows that Drake really grew on them thanks to the persistent efforts of Alyson and Leah. I hope Alex, who was in the other car, got to listen to something just as commemorative this morning as he was driven to his last field day too.
In the field this morning, we did fun-ology on the very few remaining flowering plants and did aphid addition and exclusion. Also notable, Leah and Alyson ate their last lunch out of their communal lunch box.
 “Did you pack cheese today?” Everyone’s watery eyes weren’t the only puffy thing we experienced today because after lunch, Per, Hatti, and Patrice made cream puffs for the team. They were so delicious!
For the rest of the afternoon, we put staples in p1 and did rechecks. Leah found 7 plants and Jame found 9 plants and a meter stick!
While Leah packed for her 6am morning departure, the rest of us ventured to Barrett for some culture. We attended the Fire Prairie Children’s production of Alice in Wonderland. Hatti, Patrice, and Per all had roles and were awesome! They have been attending camp only for one week and put on a great show.
Tonight we all said our goodbyes to Leah and Alyson (Alex isn’t leaving until Sunday and will be able to join the weekend festivities with us, woohoo!) Goodbyes were a little easier for me because I will see these two lovely people back at Wooster. I am so glad that I have gotten to know them this summer and can’t wait to continue spending time with and learning things from this dynamic duo throughout the year. So far I’ve learned that yes, two people can eat that much cheese,how to survive in a bog, that Drake is Too Good for me, that someone is lying about Drake and Rhianna being a “thing”, the pure joy of dropping a slide “jelly side up”, and that even when you think you can’t, you can always eat a whole bowl of taco dip.
Today is my last flog, and tomorrow is my last field day. It’s a sad ending to an amazing summer. Today we worked on independent projects in the morning & measured P9 in the afternoon. This morning I analyzed my 42nd slide out of 236 slides. My project’s goal was to better understand what pollen loads bees are bringing to Echinacea. With the help of others (huge shoutout to Laura), I captured over 100 pollinators during early, peak, and late flowering. I brought them back to Hjelm house where they were cooled and wiped for pollen. I wiped pollen (separated by body and scope) on fuchsin jelly on glass slides and am currently counting Echinacea pollen grains in comparison to heterospecific pollen. The goal of my research was to look at how pollinator foraging behavior changes over Echinacea’s flowering season. There is still a lot of data analysis left, but thanks to Team Echinacea I gathered so much great data, thank you!
In honor of my final flog post I wanted to recap what I learned from each team member:
Amy taught me the importance of patience during research. I might not have caught all my bees within the time frame I wanted, but with patience I managed to catch enough bees for my study.
Gretel taught me that field work keeps you young at heart.
James taught me that you can’t always be nice but you should always try.
Alyson taught me that hard work pays off, especially when you cut down 20+ buckthorn trees and end up with significant data within one month! (Congratulations!)
Alex taught me how important passion is in science. When I spent 12 hours catching bees and only caught 8 I had to absolutely love my research just as much as Alex loves his.
Lea taught me the importance of positivity in the field. When you have 6 “can’t find”s in a row, or are counting over 100 stipa seeds, you have to stay positive and excited about field work.
Abby taught me how to make every piece of field work fun; whether it was signing to aphids, chopping off palida, or eating soggy pretzels.
Will taught me the difference between an earned win and a lucky win (example: settlers of catan vs. the lottery).
Scott taught me that the best thing a scientist can do is just listen.
Laura taught me the importance of helping others, because science could not exist without collaboration.
Ruth taught me that humility is a far better sign of a good scientist than any accolade.
Jennifer taught me that a great advisor lets their student struggle just enough to come to a solution on their own, but never lets their advisee drown.
Zachary taught me that you can be a scientist at any age.
Stuart taught me to keep an eye out for everything, whether it’s stipa, a seedling, or a great idea.
Best of luck in all of your future endeavors,
Leah
ps: Minnesota was lit
Dear Flog,
 The team comforts Roxy as she contemplates life’s transience Today was bittersweet. We began the day by assessing phenology in the remnants, a task which takes far less time now than it did a few weeks ago. Many sites are completely done flowering, so we won’t visit them any more. To make matters worse, today was Jennifer’s last day. Roxy was so upset that she hitchhiked to Barrett in a last ditch attempt to make Jennifer stay. However there were also some rays of hope today. Most notably, Lea found a shirt that Alyson had left in Staffanson two weeks ago. We thought it was gone forever! Also, Ruth and Carlee, an REU student, visited. We all had a very productive afternoon measuring hybrid plots at Hegg. The day kept getting better. After work we went and had a nice dinner at Mi Mexico, a well-decorated restaurant in Alexandria. Tomorrow, Will, Gretel, and I will head up to Pembina to check seed set of the western prairie fringed orchids that we found earlier in the summer. Hopefully it will help take my mind off of the sad thought that more team members will be leaving soon.
Yours truly,
Amy
Hey Flog!
So much happened today- Steve Ellis, a local beekeper/bee-hero came to talk to us about the work he has done advocating for bees. He has been apart of several lawsuits that aim to stop neonicotinoids from harming his bees and bees around the country! He talked about how the chemical insecticide harms the bees and affects colony survival. Along with Steve, we got some really fantastic scones.
After Steve left we ventured into the bog to pull buck thorn from Alyson’s project. There was a lot of buck thorn and I’m sure we missed some but we would have felt bad if we hadn’t left any for the goats. We piled all the buck thorn near the ’99 south garden for a bonfire. The pile was probably at least two Abbys tall or about 12 feet. Post-buck thorn we headed in for an early lunch.
P2 rechecks after lunch, which went really fast. We were finished by about 2 and then we headed home to prepare our dishes for the potluck/bonfire party. (I brought a “multi-berry” pie, though it was more of an aggregate pie). The food at the potluck was great and we had a lot of fun chatting in the screened porch away from the mosquitoes. The party was 90 percent potluck and 10 percent bonfire, which was a good ratio.
Today was the best day of the summer for me, not only did we have a great presentation from Steve Ellis and great food, but! The man, the myth, the legend: Danny Hanson came up from Lakeville to visit! I’m so excited that we will both be at the University of Minnesota in the fall.
Danny.
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