If you run across flags,
or ribbons
or even elaborate stuff
like this in the woods,
please don’t mess with them.
They’re science. And science, contrary to some political
figures these days, is pretty much good. In this case Northwestern University
grad student Karen Taira is studying the pollination biology of perennial
sunflowers.
She is beating the bees to the pollen. Indeed, using bridal
veil material, she’s excluding bees, which are difficult to train as
scientists. Karen and her colleagues are hand-pollinating different flowers in
different ways and comparing the results.
Part of the goal of forest preserve conservation is to
conserve gene pools, components of which may be important to the future of the
planet, our grandchildren, and the health of our spirits. (In case you haven’t
heard, people who actively or passively let the beauty and fruit of millions of
years of creation and evolution go down the drain may subsequently suffer in hell – of
one kind or another.)
In order to conserve biological diversity, it’s very
helpful to know more about how species reproduce, evolve and change. Thanks to
Karen for working on this.
For some related work by Karen Taira go to:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wage0005/echinacea/Taira%20MEEC%20poster.pdf
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