This is it. I’ve officially reached the point where I see seeds every time I close my eyes. I have dreams about seeds. I dream about seed collection. I fear to sleep because I might have yet another dream of insects eating the seeds and then proceeding to eat me. When the sunlight hits my eye, the visions of Purshia tridentata I had pictured take on psychedelic hues behind my lids.

I may be going crazy, or maybe it’s just because it’s seed season. Maybe it’s exposure to what we call the ‘poison box.’ Maybe it’s Rawlins. Maybe I’m just tired. I just don’t know.

If I have to constantly see seeds everywhere, at least Purshia seeds are kinda cool looking.

Everything has been ripe all at once. We just keep moving from collection to collection. Never stopping. Always moving. Wishing we could camp to cut out travel time. Four days bent like gatherer women for one Purshia collection. We gathered in the heat, in the cold, in the middle of a thunderstorm. I maybe have taken to collecting from a comfortable seating place on the ground next to my shrub. I maybe almost fell asleep laying on little granite chunks during my lunch break. The jabbing rocks felt good.

We’ve finished 17 1/2 collections though. It’s been very… fruitful… I’m sorry. I began to write “productive.” I couldn’t help myself. One more week and we should finish another four. Or maybe not if Wyoming continues to get so much rain. We will definitely finish another two by next week. Then we finally hit our lull. A nice break before the sage brush. We only will have to check on our Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus populations in that time. We’re in excellent shape. Our goal of 25 collections will be no problem. It would be even less of a problem and we’d have hit 25 by now but sometimes, cattle graze too heavily and our species seem to be their favorite delicacy. Or, we miss one because we were out collecting something else. Which do you chose? We have two people, one vehicle. Then there was the HECO lost to fungus. What can you do? Move on. New vouchers. New locations. New species.

Capturing pollinators on film during a break from Pseudoroegneria spicata collection.

One of our collection sites: Prospect Creek Road. Collections of Purshia, Eriogonum, a                                               geranium, Idaho fescue, and squirreltail.

We still tromp around in oil and gas fields. We collect near uranium mines. We pass through H2S fields. We find ourselves dehydrated, further from the truck than expected, turned around, a tad dizzy, you name it. We have some fabulous stories. We’ve never been hurt or truly lost. I have also gotten to officially speak with a real cowboy. Like a legit, grizzled, working Wyoming cowboy. We’re learning the area very well, and we do officially spend some quality time in truly gorgeous locations.