Where to hideout for the Apocalypse if you happen to be in OR
It’s getting crispy here
lovely view typical of the district
Wild horses try to drag me away on BLM land
the closest they would let me get
sagebrush mariposa lily
failed collection technique
As summer advances here on the Prineville district, my priority seed collections are shifting from sage grouse forbs to grasses and pollinator supporter species. The desert sagebrush steppe is home to target plants that are “crispifying” as I like to put it. A pair of brief but intense heat waves throughout the northwest region has brought this crispification on, and now we must let go of these too crispy to collect plants. So, leaving the crispy northern basin and range ecoregion for the E. Cascades and blue mountains I’ve spent several collection days on Dalea ornata at two different sites. I’m getting to know this plant really well now that we’ve spent so much time together. It’s a likeable plant being a nitrogen fixer, pollinator attractant native perennial. The seeds are encased in soft fluffy pillows, and it lends a very pleasant minty-floral aroma to the hands after collection. Little munching insects like it as much as me and the pollinators do though, so my collecting has been a bit of a struggle. I tried a tactic I’ve seen some teams use on species of lupin – tied little baby shower style mesh baggies over the seed heads, hoping to catch them before they dispersed or were consumed by hungry bugs. This backfired pretty good at the first site. I think instead of keeping bugs out, I locked bugs in the baggies, leaving them no choice but to devour all my seeds. At the second site I cut my losses to dispersal and insects, and decided to just way way overcollect to compensate for poor fill. My goal was to collect from more than 1,000 individual plants on my own. (sigh). Luckily, a youth empowerment Americorps group, the Heart of Oregon corps, stepped in to the rescue. Working with these recent highschool graduates was a lot of fun, and at the end of the day one of them even told me that he thought he’d like to become a botanist. Yes! I was happy that maybe my enthusiasm and babbling about the plight of native pollinators at the beginning of our day had a part in his declaration. I love turning people on to the natural world. The corps members helped me achieve my collection goals and I am looking forward to hearing back from BSE on our yield. Hopefully we added a great restoration plant to the Prineville seed mix.
I’m also contemplating native thistles. So much is talked about invasive thistles that I think some of our lovely native thistles may have gotten overlooked. Have you ever watched a thistle flower? It’s a pollinator smorgasbord! Unfortunately the bees and flies and other critters do not seem to make much distinction between native and non native nectar sources, so I hope that by seed collecting from the local yocals I can eventually “flood the market” with a better choice for them to dine. Collecting this year has taken me to some of Prineville’s more beautiful and sometimes more quirky sites. Pictures following! Good luck with your collections interns, I’m happy to report mine are going well. Remember your pollinator friends, and even if it is not top priority, perhaps try to get a few collections for their benefit.