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| I wondered why I had a peculiar love for this humble plant. Sometimes, when we feel emotions, it takes time to figure out why. |
If you’re working to save ecosystems –
sometimes a seemingly insignificant plant or animal pops out of the background and begs for attention. Maybe some important secrets are lurking in that overlooked species.
A little elf-capped cutie
(gray goldenrod - Solidago nemoralis)
did that for me recently. It was behaving
strangely. I had been slow to notice.
strangely. I had been slow to notice.
I’m the steward of Somme Prairie Grove.
What stewards think
can change the ecosystem.
A steward learning something new
– and acting on it –
can make the difference between life or death
for hundreds of species of now-rare
animals and plants.
can make the difference between life or death
for hundreds of species of now-rare
animals and plants.
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| Stewards in training, Andrew, Josh, and Stephanie are thinking about gray goldenrod with me. (Note the "insignificant" little yellow flower-heads, scattered in the grass behind them.) It takes a village (of thinkers) to manage a delicate ecosystem as well as it deserves. More about what these stewards are thinking comes later in this post. |
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| It's a little tyke. Not even coming up to your knee. So what's so great about it? |
Walking through Somme Prairie Grove last week, I decided rashly to drop the "more important" work I was doing and think about this plant.
Is this species increasing or decreasing under our restoration efforts? If so, is that good, or bad, or what? Is it a weed and thus will decrease if we're doing the right stuff? Many field guides call it "old-field goldenrod" and list its habitat as beat-up sterile pastures. It’s largely absent from many older “restored” prairies.
But its habitat in the recovering grassland at Somme Prairie Grove includes many of the very "best" spots.
A quick check revealed my new love to be flourishing in a few small areas - but completely gone from most areas where it had been common decades ago. Some spots where it has disappeared are grasslands where we have worked the hardest - and seemed to be among our best. Is something going wrong that we haven't recognized?
A quick check revealed my new love to be flourishing in a few small areas - but completely gone from most areas where it had been common decades ago. Some spots where it has disappeared are grasslands where we have worked the hardest - and seemed to be among our best. Is something going wrong that we haven't recognized?
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| Gray goldenrod was common here, as our records show. Now it's entirely gone from this and some other plots, where we've especially focused "restoration" efforts. |
Very high quality grasslands are diverse and flowery all season long. That's the "pink of their cheeks." Bright color all season long indicates health. Most of the animals and plants of conservation concern depend on a habitat of high diversity, not just a few rare dominant species. Is it possible that a few highly competitive rare species are, over time, increasing and wiping out the diversity we're trying to restore?
But in other areas, where we'd seeded with a lighter hand (see photo below), we not only have lots of gray gold, but also increasing numbers of such rare and fine species as prairie gentian, cream indigo, alumroot, and scarlet painted cup.
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| Here gray goldenrod grows with purple prairie clover, dropseed grass, lead plant, and other diverse, quality species. |
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| This photo, in one of the highly diverse areas, is troubling. The middle of the photo is dense dropseed grass (with fine leaves that look a bit like seaweed or unruly hair). Around the edges of this dense grass are hundreds of gray goldenrods. But the dropseed, which seems to eliminate the gray gold and much else where it's dense, will be dropping large amounts of its own seed, all around, year after year. Are the days of diversity numbered here? |
One way to test that hunch was to compare
what I was seeing here with one of the region's finest prairies,
So, as I often do, I made the pilgrimage
to quality - to see what it might tell me.
I have too much data in my head. I really couldn't remember whether gray goldenrod was in the Grade A areas.
I wondered. Were the books right about this species being most typical of old fields? Or does it have a "split personality" which allows it to thrive in old fields with rank weeds and - unlike all those weeds - also thrive in the highest quality prairie? As I approached the Grade A area, I felt the chill of suspense!
Remember Andrew, Josh, and Stephanie? I emailed to ask them what they remembered of our discussion at that place. Here's some of what they wrote back (slightly edited, so it might read as a dialog):
Andrew Van Gorp: You spoke about how most people in the field consider Gray Goldenrod to be a "somewhat weedy" native plant. Originally, it was all over the Somme Prairie Grove, but as the restoration progressed you began to notice that the Gray Goldenrod dwindled and only stayed around in areas where high quality plants were growing.
Josh Coles: You went to Somme Prairie to test your hypothesis and found the gray goldenrod in all the greatest places. Someone asked about the Indian grass around us - and if it was a problem. You pointed out that in the gray goldenrod areas the Indian grass is thin, seems to be in check, and we can see right through it to the ground. Thus seedlings have a chance to thrive.
Yes, I pretty much agree. That's a good summary.
As the responsibilities and pleasures of being a steward pass from one generation to the next, we will continue to learn newer and better approaches. If we can recognize "symptoms" (like the presence of gray goldenrod) and match them with treatments (like investing conservative seed where they grow), then maybe we gradually improve at restoring health to small ecosystems (like Somme Prairie Grove) and, in time, to planet Earth, so we can maintain it as happily livable for us and our ecosystem friends.
PS: More detail on some of these issues is at:
http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2016/09/gray-goldenrod-how-important-might-it.html
PPS: If you want to be sure whether you seeing gray goldenrod or some look-alike, the best character is the leaf shape. (Some truly weedy, unhelpful goldenrods may also be short and have the "elf-cap" look.) Gray goldenrod leaves are widest toward the end. They have kind of a fatter end. Subtle? To train your eye, see the photo below.
PPPS: I wonder if one of the experiments we should be doing with the restoration of degraded remnants is to seed initially with some of the less dominant conservatives ... and hold off until later with the dropseed, lead-plant, New Jersey tea, and other potentially over-dominant species. Hmmmm. I suppose that would mean coming up with a list of what those favored species are.
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| Yes! In the very high quality prairie, I saw gray goldenrod by the thousands. |
I was thrilled to see the little darling thriving by the thousands among the rarest prairie plants. It can compete with weeds, and it can compete with the best of the best. But the message for our restoration work was clear. It can't compete in some areas that we thought were great. Gray goldenrod is a part of our "mentor" prairie, and its loss at some of "the best" areas at Somme Prairie Grove should lead us to ask questions, form hypotheses, and test them out.
That afternoon I hiked the preserve with some people who are working to develop their expertise as stewards. We discussed many species and issues during that 2-hour session. At one stop, where for some reason I was inspired to take the photo below, we discussed gray gold.
Remember Andrew, Josh, and Stephanie? I emailed to ask them what they remembered of our discussion at that place. Here's some of what they wrote back (slightly edited, so it might read as a dialog):
Andrew Van Gorp: You spoke about how most people in the field consider Gray Goldenrod to be a "somewhat weedy" native plant. Originally, it was all over the Somme Prairie Grove, but as the restoration progressed you began to notice that the Gray Goldenrod dwindled and only stayed around in areas where high quality plants were growing.
Josh Coles: You went to Somme Prairie to test your hypothesis and found the gray goldenrod in all the greatest places. Someone asked about the Indian grass around us - and if it was a problem. You pointed out that in the gray goldenrod areas the Indian grass is thin, seems to be in check, and we can see right through it to the ground. Thus seedlings have a chance to thrive.
Stephanie Place: We were standing near a little hillside that was notable for having
less-dense tall grasses. The ground was quite visible, and a
healthy diversity of native plants was able to grow amongst it. This was
in comparison to the areas of exceedingly dense and uniform Indian Grass that
we'd just passed through. So you were talking about using the presence of
the Gray Goldenrod as a cue to plant more conservative seed in
that spot.
Andrew Van Gorp: We know for sure that some management techniques
make large lasting differences - like culling over-populated deer or controlled burns.
But we need to study interactions and phenomena to develop more advanced techniques,
if we are to keep nature healthy. It may take a long time.
As the responsibilities and pleasures of being a steward pass from one generation to the next, we will continue to learn newer and better approaches. If we can recognize "symptoms" (like the presence of gray goldenrod) and match them with treatments (like investing conservative seed where they grow), then maybe we gradually improve at restoring health to small ecosystems (like Somme Prairie Grove) and, in time, to planet Earth, so we can maintain it as happily livable for us and our ecosystem friends.
THE END
pretty much
PS: More detail on some of these issues is at:
http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2016/09/gray-goldenrod-how-important-might-it.html
PPS: If you want to be sure whether you seeing gray goldenrod or some look-alike, the best character is the leaf shape. (Some truly weedy, unhelpful goldenrods may also be short and have the "elf-cap" look.) Gray goldenrod leaves are widest toward the end. They have kind of a fatter end. Subtle? To train your eye, see the photo below.
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| Tall Goldenrod Gray Goldenrod kind of a weed shape-shifter widest in middle widest toward the end |
PPPS: I wonder if one of the experiments we should be doing with the restoration of degraded remnants is to seed initially with some of the less dominant conservatives ... and hold off until later with the dropseed, lead-plant, New Jersey tea, and other potentially over-dominant species. Hmmmm. I suppose that would mean coming up with a list of what those favored species are.
4 comments:
I will try to be brief in a subject that is far too extensive for our discussion.
The science of genetics has made huge strides in recent years. Long gone is the concept that genotypes are composed of units strung like beads on a thread. Even the concept of the gene has changed into sophisticated research studies regarding the molecules that do the genetic work. Barbara Mcclintock working on Maize poor to WWII reported in a research paper that she had discovered genes that moved around. The were dubbed ‘jumping genes’, and her report was generally snubbed as fantasy. Time and the development of the science of molecular genetics proved her correct. She won a Nobel prize for her achievement.
What set this all off was the Watson/Crick disclosure of the chemistry of the genes as a helix containing ‘rungs’ of DNA molecules in certain ordered arrangements.
Subsequently, the so-called jumping genes were determined to be snippets of a related substance RNA, that move about and find suitable attachments to a gene DNA. By doing so they modify the activity of that gene, but may not be inherited in that configuration They are however most likely to do their work in response to environmental factors, and would therefore continue to attach themselves appropriately thus modifying the gene for the lifetime of the organism.
To be brief, I propose the possibility that Solidago nemoralis, of the elf cap or the beckoning finger, has a gene modifier or modifiers (jumping genes) that are uniquely sensitive to subtle changes in the environment. Consider that our little goldenrod is actually capable of adjusting itself to the various states of prairie development at the molecular level. What remains to be said can be found in your interesting blog.
Al Rouffa
Professor Emeritas
University of Illinois
Thanks, Al. It would be interesting to see whether there were genetic differences between the gray goldenrods in the old fields and the ones in the very high quality (and very competitive) prairie associations. Probably there are. People who are (rightly) concerned about endangered species sometimes don't realize that commoner species may have rare genetic alleles.
Gray goldenrods in some parts of the country can be found in dry woods. (Its scientific name "nemoralis" means "of the woods.") This same species, even in our area, can be found in sandy black oak savannas and dry prairies. The plants growing in moderately moist ("mesic") high quality prairie may have adaptations (and therefore genetics) that don't exist in the other places this same species grows.
That is why biodiversity conservation focuses not just on rare species but also on rare communities or ecosystems. If we manage our nature preserves in such a way that some of their species are lost, it could be that we are losing biodiversity, even though those lost species are doing well elsewhere.
Oh oh. I double-checked this post in response to a question and, yes, you could get the impression that it says that gray goldenrod was effectively keeping the Indian grass suppressed. I doubt that this one species could do that. It might help. But in the very high quality prairies, it's probably the diverse competitive and symbiotic effects of a great many species that keep Indian grass or any other species from excessive dominance.
Hi Stephen,
I hope you're well. I'm still enjoying learning from Somme if only indirectly! As Andrew indicated, I'm curious about the impact of fire. If "the goldenrods" are a pioneer species that relies heavily on open space, then I imagine density and an absence of fire would heavily impact the population.
On another related note, I've had the privilege of studying at Nachusa where I've learned their preferred seeding method is to sow the forbes first and fill in with grasses later. This allows the forbes to become well established without competing with the grasses. Unfortunately, I don't know any more specifics beyond that... :-(
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