Searching for seeds

Today we had a work day featuring a Girl Scout Troop from Winter Haven. The job was to look for Scrub Lupines that may have sprouted since the prescribed fire last fall. We had d no luck.

We did collect some seeds from other endangered plants for Bok Tower.

Although I didn't find any Scrub Lupine, I did encounter three Sky Blue Lupine plants in the southeast corner near the Clitoria fragrans site. They are in a different part of that section than they have been in the past and may be crowded out by Natal grass, which has become rife along the edges and within parts of the fire lane, except where Guinea grass and other disturbed area plants thrive.

Monitoring the blooming lupines

A crew from Bok Tower was out today to begin the monitoring of the blooming Scrub Lupine to gather some data on what's happening in the patch.

They were counting flower stalks and branches, measuring plants and counting seedlings.

Most of the 30 or so seedlings are in the road at least 100 feet from where the plants bloomed and put out seeds last year, so their origin is undetermined.

Nevertheless, they're a welcome addition to the population.

The older patch is pretty impressive this year. There are many large plants and all of them are in full bloom.

I've never seen a display like this, though I've heard of some following ground disturbance.

There's more monitoring scheduled in a couple of weeks to measure the other patch, which was planted later and has younger plants.

Pin the lupine on the sand skink

Thre's another lupine planting planned soon, but first comes the decision of where the planting should go.

The first time around it was a matter of picking a site that was already relatively open and wasn't infested with Natal grass. The gyrchopping, which wasn't discussed during the first site selection, changed that somewhat.

The open area had t be reopened, but it has worked out pretty well.

Now that the landscape is no longer forested, there's thought of opening up a formerly forested area mechanically, but the question is where to do that.

One site was selected, but it would interfere with some study plots that Archbold scientists are studying. I think one of the purposes is to track the response of listed plants to the non-fire management.

Another issue that occurred to me is that the cleared site shouldn't be in an area with a lot of listed plants that would have to be plowed under to make way for the lupine planting.

From my earlier GPS work, it looks as though any area within about 100 feet of the eastern fire lane would work best because I never found much when I was surveying that area, though it was heavily foreested and I could have missed a few plants here and there.

I'm sure it will all work out.

Lupine meeting yielded news

The lupine meeting at Wekiwa Springs State Park was worth attending.

I found out more plantings were planned for Lake Blue, scheduled within the next few weeks, so there's plenty of prep work to be done at the planting site Cheryl and Juliette select.
The big issue is making sure the next patch is relaitvely close to the first to make cross pollination, if that happens (no one was totally sure; there's a lot that remains to be discovered) between the existing plants and the next group.

I learned today that a Scrub Lupine's lifespan is typically five years, which makes getting plants in, blooming and seeding and producing seedlings very important. Without successful recruitment, we're toast.

I also learned that winter planting is preferable to allow the plants to become established before they have to deal with the stresses of late spring with hot weather and rain, drought stress and fungus.

The survival rate for the spring planting at Lake Blue was roughly half that of the winter planting.

I also had a chance to meet some of the other folks involved in some way in the project. Great bunch of folks, all very knowledgeable and dedicated. I was able to share some of my experience from Lake Blue. We're all intent on helping each other in any way we can to make this experiment works.

One other topic came up today, which was the need to try to find additional sites for plantings and to find the money to purchase and manage the sites. Polk County is tapped out for now. I'm not sure the state is in much better shape. The feds might have resources and there was talk of contacting NGOs, such as TNC to find out what they might be able to do.

The recovery plan anticipates additional sites with viable populations before downlisting is even possible and quite a few sites to delist. That could take some time, it would seem. But extinction is forever, which is even longer.

Lupine meeting tomorrow

I'm going to sit in on a meeting to get an update on the lupine experiment. The Lake Blue site has been a problem because of the vandalism, which has gone away for now.

I check the planting area yesterday and everything looked good. The flags have been returned.

I like to think my contacts with the neighbors and law enforcement visit helped to cool things down.

Mischief among the lupines

I stopped by the lupine plot today and discovered that the flags had been used to decorate the trail and a couple of side trails through the woods to the north fire lane.

I also discovered the rain gauge had been stolen.

I suspect it's the inbred neighbor kids, but who knows.

Maybe we need to get some cops involved and get someone's attention.

Fence on south side seems to be intact, per a drive-by this morning.

Eeeek! I'm a bug pimp!

I was out again tonight checking on the beetles, but this time I was supposed to capture a couple to see if they can live long enough to join a female in Gainesville to mate and lay eggs for the video camera.

Who says entomology is no fun?

Lupine will be conference topic

I learned today that the Scrub Lupine reintroduction project at Lake Blue will be the subject of a presentation at the Rare Plant Task Force meeting at Tall Timbers in Tallahassee in mid-April.

I will also be making a short presentation about the project at the Ridge Rangers Appreciation Day on Saturday at Circle B Bar Reserve.