June is over and the heat of July is finally here!

July at Midewin started with placing transect flags at various locations on the prairie that had their fair share of hazards! I was in primarily mesic habitats with the botany technician, Anna, where we faced thickets of sandbar willows (Salix interior), horsetails (Equisetum sp.), and of course the disgusting Phragmites (Phragmites australis).

Following setup, we began the transects and gathered data for the Floristic Quality Index (FQI). During data collection, it reminded me of a live auction where people would shout their bets at a person, but instead it was the latin/common names of the plants being shouted at the tablet holder!

Within the middle of transect season, a few of us CLMs assisted the previous CLM interns, Harsha and Veronica, in brush cutting the awful Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellatum). As a whole, we managed to cut down a great amount of the shrubs and also break a sweat which attracted the sweat bees!

Aside from transects and brush cutting, the latter half of July was spent collecting and scouting for sedges, rushes, and wetland species. While collecting on the prairie, we found ourselves to be dwarfed in comparison to the pillaring beasts that are in the genus Silphium. The largest plants tended to be seven feet tall (or taller) and had golden inflorescences that would sometimes had a critter in the bloom! All four species of rosinweeds were also relatively abundant in most habitats, but only 3 of the 4 species tended to grow with each other. How rude of the plants to not include the fourth species!

The Silphium, in my opinion, are like the trees of the prairie, as they pillar over most prairie vegetation aside from some Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardi). Additionally, they also act as pillars within the prairie as they are workhorse species within restorations. Truly, they act like pillars with other species to support a small part of the prairie’s foundation.

I hope to one day view these pillaring plants, with their immense leaves, tickle the bellies of Bison within the tallgrass prairie once again just as Aldo Leopold wished. With that, I hope other people can appreciate the absolute behemoths that are within the genus Silphium as much as I do!

Hopefully August will bring more fun on the prairie when the season changes and more plants bloom! See y’all soon!

The month of June kicked off our adventures on the prairie! Initially, we began our field season at Midewin doing meander surveys. A lot of the plants were familiar to me, however, I struggled with a few that I would normally brush off mainly due to them not being very showy (looking at you Carex!). During the meandering, we also had an active competition amongst the volunteers and CLM interns who could ID the last plant in the allotted time. Vlad and I were actively competing to find the coolest plant last, which he found a cool native and I found an Ox-Eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) an invasive species last. So, for the most part, we tied!

Regarding seed collection, June was spent collecting Atlantic Camas (Camassia scilloides) and multiple Carex species. I feel more confident in my Carex ID and this group no longer frightens me with its extensive amount of terminology! Of all the sedges we observed, I liked Davis’ Sedge (Carex davisii) the most as the perigynia look similar to popcorn kernels.

With seed collection, we were also in a wide variety of habitats like tallgrass prairie and sedge meadows. The sedge meadows were one of my favorites as they had unique tussock sedges that looked like waves of green as the wind blew through them.

Other than camassia and sedges, we also saw other cool critters like insects and many different milkweed species. When I would have down time before work or during lunch, I would take as many photos with my camera as possible. I was definitely more biased to taking pictures of bees and milkweed! 

Speaking of the bees, they were in a rush when it came to foraging on the Leadplant (Amorpha canescens). The species of bees ranged from the small Sweat Bees (Augochlora/Augochloropsis sp.) to many Brown-Belted Bumble Bees (Bombus griseocollis). The flowers of the Leadplant were very fragrant, so I do not blame the bees for being in a hurry to get this limited supply of nectar!

As for the Milkweeds, they were also fragrant and of course had many different insect species on them. Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), for example, smelled strongly of perfume and gained a lot of attraction from the red milkweed beetles (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus). As for the pollinators of common milkweed, flies and bees were a common site as were the milkweed’s pollinia attached to their legs! I also managed to see my first monarch caterpillar (Danaus pleixpplus) of the season hopefully there will be more to come!

Overall, June brought great experiences from meandering in the prairie to learning many of the sedges that occur in Illinois. I can’t wait to get lost in the Silphium forests once they bloom in July, so expect a LOT of Silphium and subsequentially their pollinators in next month’s blog!