It is hard to believe 6 months is already over and Seeds of Success is coming to an end. These past months have flown by, but they always say time flies when you are having fun. I wish time would slow down when you are having fun, but I guess it forces you to savor every moment. One of my favorite aspects of Seeds of Success has been having the opportunity to travel and get to know so many amazing national wildlife refuges, state parks and preserves, as well as, tiny, adorable towns I would never have visited. I have felt so lucky being able to set off and spend entire weeks exploring beautiful areas and spending time getting to know new plant species. It really makes you appreciate a well managed natural area and the effort it takes to keep out invasive species, maintain clean facilities (you would be surprised in the lack of water fountains, etc.), and manage trails.

While I had my doubts it could be done, my team and I managed to clean and package all of our seed from the end of the season. It is hard to believe I will not be seeing my team everyday anymore and will no longer get to enjoy the North Carolina Botanical Garden scenery. I feel so lucky I got to work in such an amazing place with such amazing people. It has been a great team building experience, learning how to work so closely with a group of people and going through all the ups and down of a season of field work.  We all managed to make it through the field season with our sanity intact and I am so grateful because every one of my team members has taught me something that I will take with me on my future endeavors. Seeds of Success has taught me so much and I am so grateful so this experience!

Me in my happy place!

It is mind blowing to think that My team and I only have about 3.5 weeks left with SOS East. During the past month we have been traveling almost every week trying to gather as many seeds as possible. It has finally begun to feel like things are winding down with only 1 more week of collecting trips left. During this past week my coworker and I traveled to 6 sites around Maryland and Virginia. With a list of places and species to look for we set out to make as many collections as possible, but our hopes were met with a lot of mowing and unforeseen circumstances. At more than half of our sites, fields that we were planning to collect from were mowed to the ground. It seems that the moment November hits everyone grabs their lawn mowers and hits every field possible. However, with all of our newly handed free time, we got to walk around and do some exploring at locations we had not looked around yet. We got to take our time and key out new species and learn some new plants and collect species we would have not seen otherwise.

Riverside forest at Seneca Creek State Park that we explored and found some wonderful treasures.

Seeds from Ludwigia alterniflora that we found in our exploring. These seed boxes as they are called are beyond awesome.

Our trip ended with a long morning collecting Spartina cynosuroides and Distchlis spicata at a beautiful salt marsh that I had not yet been to at York River State Park in Virginia. While it did not feel like fall at all (it was about 80 degrees out and boy it felt even hotter than that), it was a wonderful productive morning in a setting I love the most. When we arrived back at home base (North Carolina Botanical Garden) we realized that we had our work cut out for us the following week. The room was almost bursting at the seams with seeds and our team’s hard work really showed. As overwhelmed as I was about the amount of work we have in terms of seed cleaning and shipping, I was so happy with how much we have collected and really felt like we all have played a role in helping to restore these extremely important ecosystems.

Scutellaria integrifolia we collected.

Beautiful beach at Belle Isle State Park where we collected Sueada linearis

A mandatory fall leaf picture because this season is too beautiful not to commemorate

As Fall has finally graced us with its presence, I have thoroughly enjoyed the cool breezes, not sweating profusely every time I go outside, and the beautiful changing colors of the trees. However, as much as I love Fall, it has led to a whirlwind of activity. These past few weeks have included the busiest (and most productive) trip and an entire week of cleaning seed. Even though it has been busy, and a bit stressful at points, I have enjoyed every moment!

During the last trip, it was just my coworker and I. We traveled to Gunpowder Fall State Park, Elk Neck State Park, Tuckahoe State Park, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, and Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge to name a few. I knew a lot of our target species were now mature and ready to collect, so we were on the lookout, but I was a bit nervous that we would not be able to collect everything we saw with just the two of us. While it was a bit dizzying at times, we managed to collect almost everything we saw and made some collections of some of my favorite species. We made multiple collections of Schizachyrium scoparium, which is one of my favorite grasses because of its beautiful, delicate, fluffy inflorescence. Also, we made a collection of Parthenocissus quinquefolia along this rock wall next to the Chesapeake Bay, which was a beautiful setting along with these awesome berries.

Awesome rockwall where we collected thousands of Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Parthenocissus quinquefolia berries

At Elk Neck State Park and Chincoteague NWR we kept seeing species with mature seed that we wanted to collect. Due to the fact that we were under a tight time schedule, it made these sites particularly stressful and showed me how important time management is. My coworker and I had to sit down and really plan out who was gonna do which tasks and get as much done as possible. However, I did get to enjoy some Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) fruits at Elk Neck SP, which made this stressful day way more enjoyable. These custard treats are immensely tasty and are the perfect treat to a long day.

Paw Paw fruits ready for eating!

This past week we started with a room full of seed to be cleaned. The sheer amount that both teams had collected the week before was unbelievable and made me so happy, but I did not realize how much time the seed cleaning and packaging was going to take. Luckily, I do enjoy figuring out the puzzle of how best to clean each type of seed and it feels so great to have a tray of clean seed ready to be packaged and shipped away. My team and I got to clean a lot of berries consisting of Ilex verticillata, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, and Rosa palustris. My favorite by far was the Ilex seed, which when blended created this pudding like substance which was immensely fun to play with and it smelled like a delicious banana. I really wanted to make a smoothie out of it, but knew it was probably poisonous sadly. Overall, the start of fall has proved to be a bit challenging, but it is a welcome challenge!

More fun pictures from our travels:

Monarch caterpillar on some milkweed

Monarda punctata

Awesome mushrooms on a moss island

Beautiful Viburnum nudum berries

It is mind blowing to think that this internship is halfway over already. My time with Seeds of Success has been flying by but the amount that I have learned in just a short three months is amazing. These past few weeks we have been focusing our time on collections around the Outer Banks, NC area and our time has been rewarded with an ever increasing amount of weekly collections. Our trips to the region occurred before and after Tropical Storm Hermine had rolled through. Fortunately the storm did not affect our trips and only shared a few showers with us and some ominous looking clouds. However, we noticed that it did have an impact on the region with areas of flooding and dune movements. Storms like this reminded my team and I how important our work is collecting seed in order to restore ecosystems, like the ones all around the Outer Banks, after tropical storms and hurricanes.

Ominous clouds rolling in at Swanquarter National Wildlife Refuge

On our first trip we discovered some great populations of a Fimbristylis sp., Rhynchospora colorata, Fuirena pumila and more exciting species along a few roadsides and in a waterfowl impoundment at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and at Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary. As most of the species were not quite ready to be collected, we made notes on them and were prepared to make collections of them in a week during our next trip. Once next week rolled around, we all piled into our car and set off to the Outer Banks. Upon arriving at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, we discovered all of the species we had noted along the roadsides had been mowed. To make matters worse, once we arrived at Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary the entire waterfowl impoundment had been mowed as well. As disappointed as my team and I were, we were at least able to make other collections in the areas, but we found a new enemy known as the lawn mower.

Later in the week we traveled to Currituck National Wildlife Refuge and spent some time learning the plants in the dune ecosystem. This included species like Uniola paniculata, Ammophila breviligulata, Panicum amarum and more. I was thrilled to spend time learning these species and understanding how important they are for stabilizing dunes and for coastal restoration. Currituck National Wildlife Refuge was beautiful and this dune habitat has become one of my favorites due to the fact that these amazing plant species can grow and thrive in such nutrient poor soils and provide essential ecosystem services to stabilize our beloved beach habitats.

Wild horses seen on beach at Currituck National Wildlife Refuge

View from the dunes at Currituck National Wildlife Refuge

Over the past two collecting trips we have almost doubled the amount of collections we make per week! It has been a whirlwind of activity and quite the learning experience. We have been traveling mostly throughout Maryland and Virginia and I have slowly figured out how to best seek out collection sites in the expanse of an entire state park or national wildlife refuge. This past trip we used kayaks to gather seed from a few species like Sambucus canadensis and to scout potential sites. I really enjoyed getting to use kayaks and being out on the water, but boy they do pose a few challenges when using to collect seed. A few times I made the terrible decision to try and get out of my kayak onto what appeared as land and just sank into the mud. Also, after our second day of kayaking, I thought I was going to awake to find two new arms the size of the hulk’s arms. This did not happen, but I was sore for a few days. Despite the challenges, kayaking was my favorite part of the trip, we got to see some beautiful vistas and scout out some great populations of one of my favorite species Hibiscus moscheutos. 

Views from my kayak at Tuckahoe State Park

Hibiscus moscheutos in bloom!

In addition to the many amazing new plant species I have been learning in our travels, we have seen some amazing pollinators, moths, and various insects. It has opened my eyes more to insect biodiversity and has encouraged me to keep a lookout for insects as well as plants when out in nature. Below are just a few of the beautiful insects we have seen:

Furthermore, my team and I always discuss being opportunistic in if we see seed that is ready to collect on a plant that is not on our list to always try and key it out and collect it if possible. During our past trip we found this really awesome Schoenoplectus  sp.  that we later keyed out to be Schoenoplectus mucronatus. As none of us had ever seen this species before we got very excited and made a collection, however upon later research we discovered it is actually not native to the U.S. and had to begrudgingly microwave the seed (as to not spread exotic species around) and throw out the collection. Lesson learned! As exciting as it is to learn new species and be opportunistic where possible, I learned it is always important to do research on a plant and make sure you are not spreading an exotic species around. Overall, this past few weeks have been awesome and I hope we can keep up the momentum!

Hello all! After completing SOS training here at the North Carolina Botanical Gardens, I was thrilled to learn that our first seed collecting trip was going to be throughout the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We planned to stop at 10 sites, which seemed very daunting, but I was eager to to see the seed scouting and collecting process at work.

On Monday we set out to our first sites, Pettigrew State Park and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. These sites consisted of a lot of scouting out populations of target species. I realized how important it is going to be to know the plant species on the list inside and out and really be able to spot the various species in order to make scouting trip more efficient and effective. Also, remembering the habitats and associated species of target plants will make overlooking certain plants less likely. By the end of the first day, I knew I had my work cut out for me in terms of becoming even more familiar with the list of target species.

Tuesday was a whirlwind of activity as we visited 4 separate sites and reviewed many species on our list as we saw them along trails and roadsides. Alligator National Wildlife Refuge was beautiful and we could see evidence of the wildfire that raged through most of it earlier this year. This wildlife refuge was overwhelmingly large and I recognized how important it is to be familiar with the various sites before traveling there so time can be used most efficiently. My favorite place we visited on Tuesday was Jockey’s Ridge State Park, which has the tallest active sand dune on the East Coast. I can say from experience that Jockey’s Ridge is quite tall and quite the leg workout getting to the top.

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge

Jockey’s Ridge State Park. This picture does not do the giant sand dune justice!

On Wednesday we traveled to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and made a collection of Gaillardia pulchella. This species was so beautiful and it was freckling the landscape with bright orange and yellow blooms along the sandy roadsides. The seed heads were not so beautiful as they were extremely prickly, but worth it to collect this roadside native.

Gaillardia pulchella at Pea Island

Overall, this first trip was filled with a lot of site visits and familiarizing ourselves with plant species and the seed collecting process. At first the thought of traveling to 10 sites was overwhelming, but I now know it is very reasonable.  However, time efficiency is everything. I still have to work on taking better notes and continuing to familiarize myself with the plant list, but overall discovering all of these different parks and refuges throughout the Outer Banks was an awesome way to spend the week!

Live Oak forest at Currituck National Wildlife Refuge