Monarda in the Midwest

Posted on 14 July, 2023 by Claire Pittenger

Wild bergamot, horsemint, beebalm, Monarda spp… a genus that has stolen my heart!

Apparently it’s berga-MOT, not berga-MONT as I always have thought, and it’s not the source of the well-known essential oil of bergamot, which comes from the fruit native to Italy. However, this aromatic, herbaceous perennial of the mint family (Lamiaceae), has a scent similar to that of Citrus bergamia, and has many edible and medicinal properties.

Monarda fistulosa in a prairie restoration, Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge system (USFWS), southern Wisconsin

I first saw M. fistulosa in the prairies of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. I love the pale magenta tubular flowers, sticking up like a tuft of troll hair, and the buds that look like little presents, all folded up. White flowers were also found among the magenta, which in some cases may actually be M. clinopodia, but I’m not sure.

Maybe a *M. clinopodia* in the Hackmatack restoration

There are about 18 Monarda species in the world (Elpel), and about 7 native to Illinois including M. bradburiana; M. clinopodia or white bergamont; M. didyma or scarlet beebalm; M. fistulosa of which 3 varieties have been found in IL, including M. fistulosa var. rubra which is deep purple to crimson; 2 varieties of M. punctata, spotted beebalm; and M. media, a rare reputed hybrid between M. fistulosa and M. clinopodia (Mohlenbrock). The differences are minute, and I will have to practice my keying skills!

*Monarda punctata,* spotted beebalm in a remnant prairie of Fox River National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS), north of Madison, WI, looking like an extravagant, showstopping, layer cake

Monarda is one of the few native herbaceous plants I’ve seen in the urban neighborhoods of Chicago where I live. The other week I spotted a somewhat rare strip of prairie plants in a park strip in Wicker Park neighborhood (Hoyne Ave and North Ave).

At Chicago Botanic Garden, you can find a cultivated hybrid varieties developed by Proven Winners named Upscale TM in the Lavin Evaluation Garden. Pictured below are the ‘Red Velvet’ variety. They are much taller than the ones I’ve seen in the wild thus far.

Citations

Elpel, Thomas J. (2021). Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification, An Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families of North America (6th ed.). Hops Press.

Mohlenbrock, Robert H. (2002). Vascular Flora of Illinois. Southern Illinois University Press.

Pick the Berries

Posted on 10 July, 2023 by Casey Mills

What’s my favorite part of seed collecting and weed treating?

The berry picking.

During my time here in the Umpqua, I have successfully established myself as “the berry girl” to those that I work with most frequently.

Wild strawberries, thimbleberries, and blackberries have become a part of my daily diet. Not intentionally or by planning. They just so happen to be growing wherever we are in the Forest – like little presents presented to me throughout the workday.

Collect a seed, eat a berry. Pull a weed, eat a berry.

Whenever I first arrived in Oregon in late May, the berries were not ripe enough to eat, perhaps just barely formed or not at all. To my delight, however, June brought growth and development – for the plants and myself.

Like the briars of the wild, native blackberry, moving away from home can sting – bringing about uncomfortable, newfound independence and solitude. The only way to avoid getting scratched is by not picking the berries.

But also like the berry, moving has been and can be incredibly sweet and satisfying. So I say, pick the berries! experience life. move to a new place. start a new job. meet new people.

Berry picking is a toss-up. Regardless of how well you think you’ve selected your seemingly ripe fruit, sometimes you still end up with a rather tart or bland taste or even a few bugs … Thankfully, I can say that the Umpqua has been exactly what I wanted and so far, the sweetest of picks.

I do think that I will be quite sad when berry season is over. Maybe that is why I have an ode to blueberries on my arm – a tattoo to commiserate my time in Maine last summer where wild blueberries grew like grass in fields around Acadia National Park.

Thinking back, I do suppose that I find berries wherever I go, like hallmarks of my summers and travels.

So I make the time to find the best berry patches after work and on the weekends. I enjoy their existence while there is still time because seasons don’t wait for us. We live according to the seasons and whether or not we experience them to the fullest is on us.

So I pick while I can and I live while I can – enjoying the briars and the berries that I find along the way.

-CM

Prickly Predicaments

Posted on 10 July, 2023 by Karen Castaneda

My first month working at the San Bernardino National Forest has been so much fun! After participating in a lot of amazing projects, we were finally able to start making some seed collections at the end of the month.

Don’t Hug A Yucca

Interior goldenbush (Ericameria linearfolia) was one of our first contenders for seed collection. Big Bear has had an especially wet year, so even though these guys were among the first on our list for collection, they actually went to seed a bit later in the season than usual.

On the day we showed up for collection, there were seeding Ericameria linearifolia as far as the eye could see. It was any new seed collector’s dream! I set out with my labeled bag and started collecting. After about half an hour of collecting from various smaller plants, I saw the perfect goldenbush. It was huge and every flower was seeding with very little seed dispersed! I knew I was going to be at this one for a while, so I crouched down beside it and then…

Not the yucca in question, but a close friend of his I’m sure

I literally sat on a yucca! It hurt so bad and started bleeding a bit immediately, but luckily the pain went away pretty quickly and I continued seed collecting. Regardless, contrary to what the sticker at our Regional Botanist’s desk might say, fellow seed collectors, don’t “Hug a Yucca”!

Thistle Be Interesting

At the same site, I helped Koby, a Biological Restoration Technician, with the collection of some native cobweb thistle (Cirsium occidentale). This plant species isn’t on our CLM seed collection list, but it’s on the general SBNF seed collection list and its elusive nature intrigued me.

Native Cobweb Thistle (*Cirsium occidentale*) vs. Bull Thistle (*Cirsium vulgare*)

See this thistle has what I’d refer to as a close evil invasive twin… Cirsium vulgare. Even the name sounds like bad news! Seeing them side by side in the pictures above, the differences are pretty clear. But in the field, when you’re worried about accidentally collecting from an invasive and looking at just one of the species on their own, the differences seem less apparent. During my first week on the job, I learned that several forestry techs at our office were wary of collecting from our native cobweb thistle and reluctant to pull bull thistle for fear of choosing the wrong Cirsium.

Since then, I took a special interest in telling these twins apart. I learned that bull thistle tends to look meaner, greener, and the leaf tips extend in a way that looks like it’s giving you the finger for just looking at it. Vulgare indeed… I also learned that bull thistle tends to like moister soils near water while cobweb thistle prefers well drained soils. Our native cobweb thistle also has dark seeds and the leaves are generally more narrow, sage green, and overall just look like they’re adapted to a drier climate. Having conversations about the differences between these two thistle has given a lot of us at the office more confidence around telling these two apart. I was so pleased to hear one of my coworkers come up to me the other day with a HUGE bag of thistle seed and proudly say “I’m not afraid of thistle anymore!”. Ana Karina and I are hoping to collect vouchers of these two thistles so they can be displayed side by side and help future SBNF employees and interns!

The Ants Beat Us To It!

Finally, we also collected Stipa speciosa (Desert needle grass). We learned that the tail on Stipa seeds bend to a right angle when the seeds are fully matured. What I was truly fascinated by, though, was finding this grass bunch where ants were harvesting seed! They were slowly pulling the seeds out and we saw a trail of ants hauling seeds back to the ant hill. I recently learned that some plants have a special relationship with ants in which ants will take the seeds with them underground effectively planting the seeds and allowing the plants to grow. Who knew ants were seed collectors and gardeners too!

I’m so excited to continue learning about our California natives and being a part of some great projects in the month of July. Also, we will finally be getting our own tablets!! I hope everyone is having as much fun as I’ve been having and I’m so glad to be a part of such a great program!

The beginning…

Posted on 7 July, 2023 by Elric Mack

The first month of this internship has been adventure at every turn. We started with helping the forest service technicians with common garden experiments. We have been studying how certain plants are growing, and the amount of herbivory that is present on them. We have taken breaks to look for Lomatium dissectum and Eriogonum umbellatum.

LODI

ERUM

It has been fun hunting for our target species, and we were able to find some LODI and ERUM up at Bogus Basin, but there were not enough seeds to harvest. All life was going well until things got a bit crazy. We went to Modoc Plateau to get tissue samples of various target species from a range of different wetland sites. We were cruising along, making good progress and driving through some pretty intense backcountry roads. It was day 3 of our trip, when we were not careful enough and ended up getting stuck in a huge mud bog! It took us a day to be rescued, and even then we had to work together to pull the truck out of the mud. It took a ford F-250 to help pull a ford F-150 (Mountain goat).

All in all it was a great bonding experience, and a memory I will never forget. You live and you learn!

Home Sweet Home

Posted on 7 July, 2023 by Dade Bradley

Headed northbound on I-55, I found myself surrounded by fields of familiar Illinois flora: Zea mays and Glycine max, better-known by their common names “corn” and “soybeans.”

Upon my return home from college, however, I now also eyed scattered blooms of Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), Wild Hyacinth (Camassia scilloides), and Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon meadia) in preparation for the next six months spent at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

*Native Michigan Lilies (Lilium michiganense) in full bloom.*

Formed by glacial outburst floods during the Ice Age, Midewin and the surrounding areas host some of Illinois’ last remaining dolomite prairies. Numerous rare plant species call this habitat home, spared from the plow due to its characteristically thin soils.

This unique plant community has presented the opportunity to work alongside the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Plant of Concern program, monitoring sub-populations of Small White Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium candidum), Slender Sandwort (Minuartia patula), Butler’s Quillwort (Isoëtes butleri), and Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum).

*The Eastern Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa), commonly found among bedrock scrapes.*

Many weeks have already been spent stumbling through sedge-meadows and honing my plant identification skills — much needed for the intimidating amount of Carex on our Target Species List.

Other days have been used to put my CLM training to the test, collecting seed from Yellow Stargrass (Hypoxis hirsuta), Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium albidum), and Prairie Violet (Viola pedatifida) from a patch of remnant prairie at Lobelia Meadows.

*Bicknell’s Sedge (Carex bicknellii) ready for harvest.*

Despite being raised less than 10 miles away from Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, I’ve already explored it more this past month than I have my entire life.

And although it’s no Chugach or Tongass National Forest, Midewin is nevertheless a gem of the Prairie State — no matter how many acres of corn and soybeans hide it.

*Exploring Goose Lake Prairie, one of the many other natural areas that Illinois has to offer.*

Dade Bradley

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Month #1 in Beaverhead County

Posted on 6 July, 2023 by Eli Windy

Days and weeks out here are flying by!

We were busy our first week with white bark pine surveys in some amazing locations along the Continental Divide trail. These missions were not related to seed collection, but really helped me acclimate to the new ecosystem as a whole. I am working on the only botany crew in Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF (consists of six botanists, including myself), so we are tasked with covering as much of the 3.3 million acre forest as possible.

We quickly moved on to rare plant monitoring by checking up on known populations of Physaria pulchella, Penstemon lemhiensis and Primula alcalina. These plants were each super specialized to particular environments, so it was super interesting vising and identifying different habitat types.

Next we begun collecting bees for a pollinator survey which resulted from a partnership between Montana State University and the Forest service. These surveys were really unique and required us to run around in meadows of wildflowers with children’s butterfly nets to catch pollinators. We stayed onsite for a week, pinning the bees to preserve them at the campsite each night. This culminated in a visit to MSU’s pollinator research lab to see the archival process.

Ten-hour days in the field are sometimes long, but I’ve been having a great time at work. I feel like an honorary member of the FS botany crew and am making sure to explore on my free time. I feel super grateful that I am able to work in such an interesting place with such likeminded people.

Some quick bits about my adventures outside of work:

-Spontaneously rode in a 67-mile bike race through the Pioneer Mountains on 1 day notice.

-Met up with some fellow CBG interns at the Bozeman hot springs for a grass ID event.

-Our urban test garden is growing quick down in Lawndale, IL, so check it out if you happen to be in the area (lots of strange weeds to ID)

-Went to my first demolition derby

-Had a good time at the Twin Bridges Bluegrass Festival

-Got some great wildlife pictures and they will be ready to share by the next blog post

New Place, New Plants, New Possibilities

Posted on 6 July, 2023 by Dayna Cocciolone

As someone who has lived most of their life below an elevation of 3500 ft on the east coast, moving to the west for the summer and staying mostly around the 6000-7000 ft elevation range has been a great adventure. All of the wildlife is vastly different from what I am used to and I was lucky enough to see my first moose on my first day in Montana. Since then I have seen many new animals in person including elk, antelope, ground squirrels, marmots, snowshoe hares, new snakes, and my new favorite birds – magpies. I am also excited and apprehensive about the other new, larger animals that are more common here compared to home – grizzly bears and mountain lions – but have yet to run into them.

*Enjoying a lunch break in a meadow during a scouting trip at the Big Snowy Mountains*.

Along with many new animals that I had not seen before, I am also excited to see and learn of lots of new plants that I had not previously known as well! Some of my favorites so far include all of the species of Phacelia (Scorpionweed), Penstemon (Beardtongues), and Mertensia (Bluebells) which I had not seen in my home state of North Carolina. And I am definitely looking forward to trying some huckleberries for the first time whenever they are in season! There are also some new species within genuses I already was familiar with such as Actaea rubra, Acer glabrum, and many new pines and spruces. The mountains in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest as well as the ones I am used to from North Carolina are both very beautiful and yet so different from each other. Montana has way fewer broadleaf trees than what I am used to and I am looking forward to learning all of the conifers that make up the amazing forest that I am working with this summer.

*Phacelia spp. found June 28^th during a trip through the Big Belts. Not the ones on our list, but still beautiful.*

Already I have gained many new skills and experiences and I can not wait to see what the rest of the summer brings to me from this wonderful opportunity and I am so excited to help contribute to future restoration projects in order to keep these forests thriving!

*Memorial Falls at the Little Belts – just a fun day trip.*

Greetings from the UKB!

Posted on 6 July, 2023 by Maddie Weinrich

When I received my offer letter from Chicago Botanic Gardens to work with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Klamath Falls, OR, I was beyond enthralled! Coming from Omaha, NE, I had never experienced a landscape quite like southern Oregon. Knowing I was going to have an whole summer dedicated to studying an entirely new range of species was my sole motivator for making the twenty-two hour trek out here.

My first project started the week of May 8th, where another intern, Loretta, and I, had the opportunity to conduct yellow rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) surveys within the Klamath Marsh. These small birds, only a few inches in length, reside in grassy marshes and due to their brown and yellow coloration, are difficult to see from the naked eye. Due to the decline in population, rail surveys are important indicators of the health of the marsh. In order to attract yellow rails, we had to create a series of clicking noises with stones (a technique that was difficult to perfect) which lured male rails toward our net. After they were trapped, we carefully handled the bird using a bander’s grip, shown below.

We then placed a silver band around their leg, measured the length of each bird’s wing, tail, tarsus, and culmen. In the end, we surveyed 30 birds throughout the course of three nights. It was a rewarding first project that I was grateful to be a part of!

After a week of rail banding, I spent the remainder of May working with the FWS hatchery crew. The hatchery’s main focus is to restore lost river and shortnose sucker (Deltistes luxatus and Chasmistes brevirostris) populations within Upper Klamath Lake. Larvae from both populations are collected at the mouth of the Williamson River, which feeds into Upper Klamath Lake. The larvae are then brought back to the hatchery and, upon successful survival, will be released once they have matured.

A bulk of our summer has consisted of monitoring bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) populations at Deming Creek and removing brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) populations from Callaghan Creek. Bull trout populations have significantly declined from habitat loss and degradation, which is why they are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Brook trout are an invasive species throughout the Upper Klamath Basin (UKB) because they are out-competing bull trout for vital resources. In order to restore the health of waterways, brook trout removal and bull trout re-introduction must be conducted.

Species monitoring and removal are completed with backpack electroshockers, which are designed to temporarily shock the fish while mitigating harm. For bull trout monitoring, electrofishing gives us the ability to easily record measurements and other useful data that indicates the health of the fish. Below is a picture of a healthy brook trout found at Deming Creek.

Aside from species’ monitoring, electrofishing allows us to capture and remove as many brook trout as possible. At first, I was quite uncomfortable with removing up to 300 brook trout a day, however, I have begun to recognize the importance of invasive species removal.

Outside of fieldwork, I have been able to connect with several employees at the Klamath Falls office, all who have been extremely helpful in providing me with ample resources. I am beyond appreciative to be an active participant in the conservation work being performed within the Upper Klamath Basin and I cannot wait to share more updates about my time with FWS!

Maddie Weinrich

Week 1 at the Manti-La Sal National Forest

Posted on 6 July, 2023 by Mattie Smith

I made the 14-hour journey from the lush green of Oregon to the vibrant reds of the Moab, Utah desert. Such strikingly different landscapes but both equally enthralling. After about 48 hours, of which I spent unpacking, familiarizing myself with the town, and hiking to streams to beat the heat, I began work.

A creek I swam in with a view of the national forest I would soon be working in.

Over the next 5 months I will be working in the Manti-La Sal National Forest collecting seeds. I started a few weeks later than my co-intern because of my college graduation (woohoo!) so it felt as though I was a little behind. My first day consisted of completing the required trainings and after we got into the fun stuff.

Since I was coming into things a little late, my co-intern and supervisor had already scouted for our first seed we were going to collect. We were looking for the Utah Sweetvetch (Hedysarum boreale). The Utah Sweetvetch was easy to distinguish between other similar plant species due to its constricted pods, broken into separate sections. After about an hour in the field we were able to identify a massive population, much of which was ready to collect. We spent about 2 more hours collecting seeds and were able to collect about 24,000 seeds my first day. The following day we were able to collect 20,000 more.

After two days collecting seed at lower elevation on an exposed landscape, we were recruited up to higher elevation. The recreation crew for the Manti-La Sal needed bodies to help with a large fence project around a lake in the La Sal’s. Much of the La Sal’s have free range cattle which have a tendency to get into everything, a problem I am familiar with from rural Oregon but did not expect to run into here. We were tasked with taking down the existing barbed wire fence that surrounded a small lake and its campground. The fence was in disrepair due to the winter months at high elevation as well as the nosy cattle. A portion of the fence ran through boggy areas surrounding the lake as well as patches of stinging nettle that managed to make contact with my wrists despite my long sleeve shirt and gloves. Both the wet boots and itching wrists were a welcome tradeoff for the cooler temperatures. We spent nearly two days taking apart this fence and were all hugely satisfied to unwrap the last piece of barbed wire from the final t-post. The fence will now be rebuilt with t-post 3 feet closer together for more support and we will all cross our fingers and hope that this year’s snowpack and cattle don’t destroy it again.

My first week of work, although I am exhausted and welcomed the weekend with open arms, has me stoked for the rest of the season. I can’t wait to explore more of the Manti-La Sal NF and my new desert home!

Fantastic Foray to Stuck Truck

Posted on 6 July, 2023 by Beth Haney

The Rocky Mountain Research Station in Boise, Idaho is incredibly busy! I started off my internship by travelling with some forest service coworkers to a Botanical Foray at the Desert Experimental Range (DER) in Utah. Marguerite, Bebe, Anna and I met some amazing botanists who are passionate about the Great Basin. We hiked up Tunnel Springs Mountains, I collected and pressed some cool cacti (and made my first ever voucher!!), and we socialized with like minded botanists. We filled some of our free time with campfire stories, hunting for scorpions, going to Great Basin National Park to scout for rare plants, and seeing some beautiful scenery.

In the middle of June, I helped assist a BSU project in Bruneau, Idaho. We camped at Bruneau Dunes State Park. We identified species in blocks for a master student’s data.

My last big trip of the month was to the Modoc Plateau in Oregon, California, and Nevada. Elric and I went with Joe, a forest service seasonal employee to scout for plants in predetermined wetland sites for a follow up survey of an AIM season. Hiking in the Great Basin is so unique, one minute you are in sagebrush steppe or desert, the next you are in small wetland areas.

We found some amazing plants that weren’t on our species list- like this huge puffball!

Then… we hit a little speed bump in our trip. We got stuck in some mud, and ended up having to call for a rescue from Boise. We were about 6.5 hours away, but Jessica and Anna came to our rescue! Elric, Joe and I camped out for about 40 hours waiting for help to arrive, since we got stuck in the late day/early evening on Wednesday 6/28.

After long hours of working on the truck’s escape from the mud, we finally got it! We had a celebratory spaghetti dinner, and then we camped close by for the night. We were able to finish out assignment in the Modoc Plateau! We got back late Friday (6/30), and we are so relieved to be back home.

Overall, this has been such a thrilling first month to my internship! I can’t wait to see what the rest of this season holds with these amazing people!

CLM Internship Program Blog

Adventures of a CLM Intern