I’ve been harvesting seed most of this week, while the rest of the Platte River Prairies crew was away at some fire training. It’s been a productive week, but hasn’t left me much time to write. As a result, I’m just putting up a quick post today that shares a few images and video from my seed harvesting.

We’ve been harvesting seeds all summer for two projects – (1) a 50 acre cropland restoration, and (2) continued overseeding of some degraded prairies. For the cropland restoration, we’re trying to harvest as many species as we can, including from wetland plants, since we’ll be doing some wetland construction at the site. We’ve been squeezing seed harvest in between lots of other work, so haven’t been able to get seed from all the species we want. As of today, I think we’ve gathered seed from 108 plant species, give or take, and we hope to get to at least 150 by the end of the season. The overseeding project requires a less diverse mix, but large amounts of seed. There are about 20-30 species we’re trying to add to pastures that are missing plants due to a history of overgrazing and broadcast herbicide use.

Most of those species are harvested by hand, which might seem inefficient if you’ve not been part of an effort like this. In reality, it’s surprising how much seed you can grab with your hands if you’re organized and diligent. We have a spreadsheet of plant species and constantly update it with the best sites to find large amounts of seed from each plant and when the seed is ripe. We’re constantly scouting for seed while doing other work too, keeping track of good populations we’ll want to return to later. Armed with that information, we strap buckets to our waists, wade into the prairie, and grab big handfuls (hopefully!) from each species.

This week, though, while I did some hand harvesting, much of my time was spent running a pull-behind mechanical harvester (seed stripper). I wrote about the particular machine we have several years ago, if you’re interested. We (meaning Nelson Winkel) have made a few minor modifications to it over time and it’s a great way to harvest large amounts of some species. The mechanical approach works best when there are big congregations of plants and an absence of invasive species we need to avoid. This week, I was using the seed stripper to harvest big grasses (big bluestem, Indiangrass, switchgrass, etc.), perennial sunflowers (stiff, Maximilian, and sawtooth), and a mixture of big summer wildflowers (Illinois bundleflower, wild bergamot, showy tick trefoil, and others).

It’s very gratifying work and also provides a lot of time to contemplate and dream. In fact, I came up with a couple different blog post topics while I was zoning out on my ATV. I also got to watch lots monarchs and other pollinators, scare up migratory sparrows from their hiding places, and even got temporarily mobbed by bumblebees when I stopped the running machine over the top of their nest. (Sorry about that, bumblebees!)

In addition to the few photos I’m including here, I’ve also put together a very rough and amateurish video that shows what the seed stripper looks like in action. For what it’s worth, here’s the video.

Yesterday’s sunrise was hazy and colorful and made me late getting started on seed harvest. It’s hard to resist a colorful sun and calm winds…

The haze stuck around all day. While we were harvesting seeds at a restored wetland, we came across some big patches of lobelia – both blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) and cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis). Because there still wasn’t much breeze and the haze was making gorgeous light, I exercised by authority and tenure and did a little photography while the Fellows continued harvesting seed. I only felt a little bad about it.

Autumn in the Platte River Prairies is mostly about yellows and golds. Sunflowers, goldenrods, and other yellow flowers often swell up within a prairie of green-turning-golden grasses. White flowers like bonesets and asters provide accents here and there. However, if you know where to look, autumn is also the time when blue flowers make an appearance. Blue is not a common color among flowers – partly because it doesn’t seem to attract as many pollinators as other colors. This time of year, though, both blue lobelia and pitcher sage (Salvia azurea) are making their presence felt. I didn’t photograph any pitcher sage yesterday, but we definitely saw it as we carried our buckets through the prairies.

After I got home, I grabbed some lunch and caught up on some emails and other computer work. I couldn’t help noticing, though, that the wind velocity was still fairly low and there was enough haze to somewhat diffuse even a mid-afternoon sun. My mind wandered. I figured it must be time for downy gentian (Gentiana puberulenta) to be blooming. We don’t have that species in our lowland Platte River Prairies, but there are some nice populations in the loess soils of a couple nearby prairies owned by Prairie Plains Resource Institute. I decided I’d better go check on it and headed for Gjerloff Prairie. Sure enough – more blue flowers!

Feeling blue? It might be a great time to see blue flowers in a prairie near you. Even if all you see are yellow and white flowers, that’s still worth the trip, right?