“There’s a dragon with matches that’s loose on the town
Takes a whole pail of water just to cool him down”

Lots of seed matured when in Chicago, so whence I returned to the field office I was pretty busy for a few weeks. Now, I have just about caught up on collecting the early season seeds and can breathe a little more slowly. Currently starting to collect more vouchers of some flowering plants that should have mature seed by the time I leave here. Some of these mid season bloomers I’m particularly enamored by are: Eriogonum elatum, and Calochortus macrocarpus. Next week will even have a few scouting days, I have some interesting rehabilitation plants in mind.

“Almost ablaze still you don’t feel the heat“

Regarding weather, the summer came out right on time with the solstice. From a nice, albeit (mostly) dry spring, to a early summer where each day so far since has clocked in over 100F, with many 105F+. Remember, we’re at 47*N- I strategically work in the north for the cool temperatures (this might be sarcasm). As a consequence of the winter drought, and the summer heat, fire season is go! A fire started up on one of the mountains over Wenatchee, which blew into town and started some fires in the (apple) warehouse district, It was about ½ mi from our office. I’m sure Justin will have a better story of this than me. So I’ll get back to my own tales. I’m adjusting real well to the heat, lobbed off my hair and bouncing through the hills quicker n ever. Scanning through the blog it looks like we’re all sweating in solidarity! Here’s a smile to all you still working as hard as ever!!

So since back from Chicago I have finished six more SOS collections for a total of 12-which I’m very excited about because with drought, being able to do that can’t be taken for granted! I really thought I would have a struggle of a time trying to get into the double digits. My collections are kind of focused on certain families, the massive Asteraceae, and Apiaceae taking precedence. One collection I’m happy about, and that Justin Chappelle was kind enough to help me with, is Astragalus leibergii, it’s endemic to the Wenatchee resource zone, and does really well in cattle grazed areas. I can’t change grazing policy, but I can try and keep the ground green. I have yet to thoroughly review the alkaloid chemistry of Astragalus, but suspect that A. leibergii contains indolizidine alkaloids- similiar to (if not) swainsonine.

I have not had much time for studying chemistry recently because I have been studying plant genetics. Currently I am reading “Plant Microevolution in Human-influence Ecosystems” I am still in the foundational sections but believe it will answer some of my questions and concerns about collections, and abet many more curiosities- hopefully resulting in better decisions on my part. The college I attended emphasized praxis. there “Chemistry is taught on the bench” and plant biology is no different, although the field is in lieu of the bench!

The only other tasks of note that I have done so far since my return have been collecting seed from the rare, and threatened, plants Cryptantha leucophea, and Astragalus sinuatis with the ‘Rare care’ team from the University of Washington. It is a big contrast to SOS protocol, we took only up to 1/3 of seed/pl., 1/10 of the populations total seed, and each plant had their seed individually bagged into coin envelopes (Collection along maternal lines). We were also able to find a new very large group of C. leucophea which was of assistance to us filling out the seed quota! Another fortune was several A. sinuatis individuals with no signs of insect damage to their seeds (a researcher has estimated about 95% of the populations seed undergoes predation).

I spent the last week with Lorna monitoring Silene spaldingii, a federally threatened species which inhabits the Palouse grasslands of WA, and areas of bordering states. This was the first time that I had worked in the Palouse grasslands and scablands, I always enjoy getting to work in new habitats and starting to get a feel for the plant life and how it is distributed. We counted about 400+ plants, which in light of historical trends isn’t bad when climate is factored in.