Bring it on, Fall!

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: