Echinacea Field Log

We went out to Hegg Lake for a plant-seeing adventure on Wednesday. Click the pictures to embiggen.

First of is some Onosmodium, a marbleseed.

A garter snake. Stuart knew the latin name but my memory isn't that good.

Thistles can be pretty!

Penstemon grandiflorus, what are you doing here? You're not native to this area!

Spiderwort, a Tradescantia. A nice find.

Dichanthelium is in flower! There's quite a bit of it this year.

Polygala senega was on top of a hill.

Death camas (Zigadenus). Watch out.

Sisyrinchium. These are blue, unlike the white ones I've seen at Staffanson

Deer flies. These suckers hurt when they bite.

Stipa is in flower! You can see the parts pretty clearly here.

Interestingly, the diaspore is pretty much fully formed by the time pollination is happening. This makes sense, as it's all maternal tissues apart from the seed itself. You can see it on Greg's hand.

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Having stickered and scanned all of the collected Stipa seed (great job Ian, Hillary, and Lauren!) we've gone through and stuck them all into their foamy rows. 1700ish seeds later, we're ready to plant out in the common garden! Here's a few pictures:

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Beetles getting busy. The male was mounted on the other female shortly before this photo.

Looking for orchids, this is in some pretty swampy area. Someone Mentha.

Swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata. Also while out looking at orchids.

Showy milkweed, Asclepias speciosa.

Lepidopteran love.

This plant appears to not be photosynthetic

Click to embiggen. This white fuzzy (yes, an insect!) is hanging out on an echinacea, doing whatever it is they do.

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Parent's Visit and the 4th:
On July 1st, my parents came to visit us up in MN. They joined the group for burgers at the K-town bar on Thursday night. On Friday, we explored (Mom, Dad and I) Fergus Falls, which has a surprising amount going on for such a small town. We found a great Art gallery, with some really cool pictures of MN from the air, and visited Phelps Mill, an historic site. We ate dinner a yummy Italian restaurant, recommended by Ian (thanks Ian!) and found a wonderful little cafe for dessert, Cafe 116. Sunday, the 4th was spend with the Wagenius' at Elk Lake, which was a delight. All in all, the parents had a great visit. Below are some of the pictures Mom took:

Orchid Trip:
On Monday, July 5th Team Echinacea (or some of us at least), helped Gretel find and count the endangered Great Plains White Fringed Orchid. I did a mini-report on this plant for my Plant Evolution and Diversity class, so to find out more about the plant see Gallagher_PoW_16April2010.pdf .

It was really fun to visit to a very different type of prairie (wet vs. mesic), and spend a day doing something totally different. Unfortunately, this year the mosquitoes were especially bad, which kind of put a damper on the day. Fortunately, the team ended up have a lovely dinner at Cafe 116, and I think I can safely say that I had some of the best pulled pork in MN.

Some pictures of the orchid trip:

Planting My MS Project Sites:
On Wednesday, we finally began planting the three sites for my Masters Project. It was a huge group effort, and I can't thank everyone enough for helping out. Here are some pictures of the effort:







All Finished! WOOT!

Bowling:
Friday night Team Echinacea went bowling. While I wouldn't say we were horrible, I also wouldn't recommend that any of us, except maybe Laura, join a bowling league. The rest of us were inconsistent to say the least, although I think everyone got a least one strike, so there is hope. That said, I think any bowling league would be a bit... surprised by some of the techniques Lauren employed. Bowling left handed, and pushing the ball under Hillary's legs both seemed particularly successful strategies for her. Personally, I found left-handed bowling to be a complete disaster. Pictures of the fun:
Teamwork gets the job done:


The Under-the-Leg Technique... not so successful, but kinda fun to watch:

Sometimes the fates were against us... for looong stretches of time:

But we had fun anyway:

Et Voila! We're back up to date. 'Till next time!
-Kate

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Ok, you have to enlarge this photo.

Climaciella brunnea: the Wasp Mantidfly is really neither of those things (well, it's a mantidfly, but you know what I mean). It's not a wasp (order Hymenoptera, includes bees and ants, too) nor is it a mantis (order Mantodea, pretty much just mantids). It's actually more related to lacewings and antlions (order Neuroptera).

Doesn't it just look strange?

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Broken up from the previous entry so as to not make things too messy in the Stipa category.

Carduus out at KJ's

Some critter snipped the stalk and laid some eggs, looks like.

This sad-looking Echinacea was out at NW of Landfill, along with other bent over and crummy-looking Carduus and others. The grasses and legumes around it looked pretty OK, so I'm wondering if perhaps these were hit by some herbicide overspray earlier in the season before the grasses grew up around it.

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Heliopsis helianthoides - Sunflower

Phlox pilosa - Prairie Phlox

Echinacea angustifolia - narrow-leaved purple coneflower (before flowering)

This Echinacea (#11432) got creamed by a road grating truck. It had at least two heads and more than forty-five basal leaves. Being a taproot, it'll likely grow back at some point, but if cars keep driving over it, who knows.

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