{"id":90653,"date":"2024-09-28T16:34:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T23:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=90653"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:44:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T20:44:41","slug":"sowing-seeds-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=90653","title":{"rendered":"Sowing Seeds in September"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After this last month, I\u2019m feeling like a lucky human.\u00a0It\u2019s one thing to know and recognize a plant during the peak of its life cycle, its blooming state. I liken knowing a plant at this level to a surface level relationship \u2013 simple, somewhat predictable, and perpetually showing the most beautiful side of oneself.\u00a0 But these types of relationships often lack depth, complexity, and greater meaning.\u00a0When you start to recognize and become familiar with a plant after the height of its season, a certain depth of connection comes into being.\u00a0While some plants carry subtle hints of their flowering stage into their seed stage, they can be quite unrecognizable at first. Like watching a child grow over the years, there\u2019s a stark and raw beauty that arises when you get to know a plant over the various stages of its life cycle.\u00a0Even when it\u2019s not at the peak of its life and even when it\u2019s in its dried, brown, and withering states.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A beautiful dried fruit and seed from a plant we did not collect from but is prevalent across the landscape.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Harvesting Angelica lucida.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Good ol’ Calamagrostis canadensis<\/em>, a workhorse native grass; very prevalent across the landscape and an essential plant in the restoration project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gathering the seeds of various plants this season has allowed me to observe them in all of these stages, focusing especially on their later stages.\u00a0I\u2019ve seen them go from small buds to old dried withered plants in but a few weeks. The blessed cycle of life, from birth to death and rebirth again, happens quickly here. And it\u2019s especially pronounced when your job is to pluck the ripe and ready seed from the withered hands of a dying plant.\u00a0I enjoy identifying, observing, and working with plants in this latter stage of their life. I think they\u2019re incredibly beautiful in this stage of their life, and I realize how rare it is to interact with them intimately during this season \u2013 especially the wild ones.\u00a0Additionally, observing plants during this stage in their life cycle has made me feel even more in awe of their existence \u2013 both native plants in general and, more specifically, their seed development processes.\u00a0The fact that the seeds from this region of Alaska have the ability to mature at this time of year and then lay dormant through the long, harsh winter astounds me.\u00a0 Especially since, when you cut them open, they aren\u2019t completely dry.\u00a0They have to maintain some moisture. To go through such harsh conditions as a small living organism is simply amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cut test of Artemisia arctica<\/em>. Note the purple hue present inside some of them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not even as linear and straightforward as that.\u00a0The other morning, we had our first frost.\u00a0When we went out to gather the seed off of one of our beloved sedges, Carex canescens,<\/em> the dew had frozen, with tiny icicles clinging to the vegetation.\u00a0Later that day, it was surprisingly clear, and the sun warmed up everything enough to give me a sun burn.\u00a0This begs the question: at what point should we stop gathering seed? Since we were inevitably going to warm up the seeds again and they would thaw, at what point does the frost\/thaw oscillation begin to wake up a dormant seedling?\u00a0We decided it was probably still fine to harvest the seeds since, in nature, they would have frozen and thawed anyway.\u00a0But it got my mind racing with questions about the lives of seeds: how they know when to wake up and how long they can live in the seed state or seed bank before they lose their viability.\u00a0 And this isn\u2019t to mention the grass seeds of this region, most of which have not fully developed yet although it\u2019s almost October!\u00a0 We even saw a grass still flowering last week.\u00a0 What a wild world these plants create for themselves. They truly become more astounding the closer you look and the longer you notice them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Seeds: harvested, dried, cut, processed, and bagged.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Focusing on and appreciating these lesser known aspects of plants deepens my connection to them and to the greater environment, allowing me to understand the subtle details and differences in their relationship to the whole ecosystem. Sometimes I wonder how many people have formed a close enough relationship with the star gentian (Swertia perennis) to notice how it likes to grow around the edges of the muskegs in south central Alaska and can recognize, just by looking at it, when its seeds are mature. I wonder how many have monitored the transition of the coloring of the megagametophyte of the marsh cinquefoil (Comarum palustre<\/em>), which blooms curious red flowers in the standing water of marshes in these northern, harsh environments.\u00a0Who has studied the seeds of Cottongrass (Eriophorum angustufolium<\/em>) under a microscope and ogled over their sparkly brass seed coat? I wonder how many have had the opportunity to get to know some of these native plants on this level and to this degree.\u00a0It sure comes with some weird niche knowledge, but being a plant nerd, I take pride in it and am sure it will come in handy at some point down the road. I feel very lucky to have been able to form a relationship with these plants in this way.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Seeds we processed brought to the restoration site for a direct autumn sow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At this point, the next stage in restoration process has already begun, and it is exciting to pass it off. We’ve connected with the folks who are growing the native plant starts for next season and have delivered a portion of the seed that they will receive from us. They’ve also begun sowing the seed for next season! Additionally, we visited the restoration site and did some direct sowing of some of our seed collections including, Calamagrostis canadensis, Heracleum maximum, and Angelica lucida<\/em>. Harvesting, drying, and bagging the seeds brought out a level of satisfaction, but getting them to this stage took many hours of work and was at least a several-weeks-long process for each species. However, seeing the seeds returned to the ground – especially to their final resting place and future site of evolution – was both settling and satisfying for the spirit. I wished them well on their way as I tossed seeds into the black, barren dirt beside Resurrection Creek at the restoration site. “Grow well and help heal this land!” I whispered as they danced their way back into the soil, settling in for winter and, hopefully, reawakening come spring. They’ve had quite the interesting and rare journey over the past few weeks and definitely deserved their time to rest in the wild habitats they’re most accustomed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sowing Angelica lucida<\/em> into the restoration site along Resurrection Creek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After this last month, I\u2019m feeling like a lucky human.\u00a0It\u2019s one thing to know and recognize a plant during the peak of its life cycle, its blooming state. I liken knowing a plant at this level to a surface level … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7636,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7636"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90653"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91090,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90653\/revisions\/91090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}