Minnesota Plant PressThe Minnesota Native Plant Society Newsletter

Volume 24 Number 4 Summer 2005

Monthly meetingsMinnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Visitor Center, 3815 American Blvd. East

Bloomington, MN 55425-1600

952-854-5900

6:30 p.m. — Building east door opens6:30 p.m. — Refreshments,

information, Room A7 – 9 p.m — Program, society business7:30 p.m. — Building door is locked

9:00 p.m. — Building closes

ProgramsThe MNPS meets the first Thursday in

October, November, December, February,March, April, May, and June. Check theWeb site for more program information.

New MNPS Web sitewww.mnnps.orge-mail: contact@mnnps.org

MNPS ListserveSend a message that includes the word

“subscribe” or “unsubscribe” and yourname in the body of the message to:mn-natpl-request@stolaf.edu

In this issueLeadership changes ............ 2

President’s column.............. 3

Fall field trip .......................3

Go Native! book review........4

Mower County prairies.........4

New board members.............5

New lifetime member.......... 6

Sneezeweed (Plant Lore).....7

Rediscovered flower............. 7

Oct 6: “Managing Woodlands During

and After Buckthorn,” by Janet Larson,

forester. Place of the Month: Meyers’

Prairie, Nicollet County, by Linda Huhn.

Nov. 3: “Plant Communities of the

Mississippi River Gorge,” by Karen Schik,

ecologist with Friends of the Mississippi

River and MNPS board member. Seed

Exchange.

by Lee E. Frelich, director, University of Minnesota Center forHardwood Ecology. This is an abstract of his talk at the April 7,2005, meeting.

European earthworms and deer are having a synergistic impacton woodland plant communities that is cascading through forest

ecosystems, causing major changes in soil structure, nutrient

availability, loss of native plant species, facilitation of invasive

species, and failure of tree regeneration. European earthworms eat

the duff in hardwood forests when they invade, exposing the root

systems and causing death of a large proportion of woodland plants.

The deer-to-plant ratio is then much higher, allowing deer to finish

off many of the remaining plants and tree seedlings.

Recovery of the plant community is difficult because the seedbed

conditions are changed from duff to mineral soil, the mycorrhizal

community is changed, the dusky slug (also a European invader)

causes high mortality of newly germinating seedlings, growth of

plants is relatively slow due to lesser availability of nutrients, and

those plant seedlings that get past these difficulties can then be eaten

by deer.

Previous research in the Big Woods by Augustine and Frelich

showed that densities of plants must be on the order of 4,000 per

acre or more to saturate the deer, and such densities are hard to

achieve. A few species of plants,

including Pennsylvania sedge and

jack-in-the-pulpit, are adapted to

the post-invasion conditions. The

sedge in particular can become

very dense and out-compete other

native plant species.

The combination of high deer

populations and invasion byEuropean earthworms and slugs

Combined attacks by deer,earthworms endangeringhardwood forests in state

Collect, package nativeseeds to exchange Nov. 3

Place native seeds for the exchange inenvelopes. Write the name of the plant andthe seed source on each envelope. Theexchange will follow the meeting.

Continued on page 5

With the warm, sunny summer of2005 upon us, I am pleased to reportthat the Minnesota Native PlantSociety continues to flourish. Oursteady growth can be attributed to thehard work and dedication of theboard of directors and the activeparticipation of many of ourmembers. The society continues togrow with new members, and wecontinue to offer informativeprograms, field trips, and services toour membership. This is no accident.Over the past several months, theboard and many members have beenvery committed to improving thesociety, developing new ideas, andplanning future programs, field trips,and symposia.

At the June board meeting, we saidfarewell to two members of the boardwho have gone above and beyond thecall of duty over the past three years– Doug Mensing and David Johnson.Among his many contributions to thesociety, Doug has taken the lead inplanning and organizing our manyfield trips each year, as well ashelping to organize the 2004 and2005 annual symposia. David hasserved as our treasurer for manyyears, and has handed the books overto Ron Huber for safekeeping. Wethank both Doug and David for theirenergy, enthusiasm, and adeptservice to the society!

Sandy McCartney and MaryBrown were both elected to the boardthis spring and started their terms atthe June meeting. Daniel Jones wasrecently appointed to the board tocomplete Dianne Plunkett Latham’sterm, and he has already beguntaking the lead on planning the 2006symposium. We look forward toworking with Sandy, Mary, andDaniel, and the new ideas,considerable experience, and freshperspectives they bring to the boardand the society.

The officer elections resulted inseveral officers continuing on foranother year’s term. Scott Milburnwas re-elected as vice-president, andKaren Schik will continue on assecretary, with assistance from MaryBrown. Ron Huber has graciouslyaccepted the position of treasurer.And I am honored to have theprivilege to serve as president for onemore year. Linda Huhn continues toplan our monthly meetings, and KenArndt has taken the lead role as fieldtrip coordinator.

Most of all, I want to wish all ofour members a most enjoyablesummer of botanizing and enjoyingMinnesota’s great outdoors. Wewelcome your ideas andparticipation.

Please be sure to visitwww.mnnps.org and please feel freeto contact the officers, boardmembers, or other key members withyour ideas for future society servicesand programs. I hope to see you atthe summer field trips, and at ournext membership meeting inOctober.

Best regards, Jason Husveth,president

From the presidentHannah Texler, Minnesota DNR

regional plant ecologist, will lead afall field trip to the Helen AllisonSavanna SNA and Cedar Creek Bogat Bethel in Anoka County from 2 to5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18. To register,contact Doug Mensing atfieldtrips@mnnps.org or 612-202-2252.

Helen Allison Savanna SNA is an86-acre prairie and oak savanna. Itwas named for Helen Allison Irvine,“Minnesota’s grass lady,” who wrotea text on the 180 grasses ofMinnesota. This SNA lies within theAnoka sand plain, providing anexcellent example of sand dune plantsuccession, with blowouts and dunesin various stages of stabilization bypioneer species.

Community types found on the siteinclude oak sand savanna, dry prairiewith bur oak and pin oak, thickets ofwillow and aspen, and sedge marshesin scattered depressions. Trees andshrubs include pin oak, bur oak,American hazelnut, chokecherry,willow, and quaking aspen. Othersavanna species include lead plant,smooth sumac, slender willow,steeple bush, aster, and goldenrod.Look on the dunes for pioneer sandplants such as sea-beach needle grassand hairy panic grass. Sedgemeadows contain tussocks ofHayden’s sedge, along with marshfern and blue-joint grass. Other rareplant species occurring include long-bearded hawkweed, rhombic-petaledevening primrose, and tall nut-rush.

A side trip will take participants ona short boardwalk through the nearbyCedar Creek Bog, which is locatedat the University of Minnesota CedarCreek Research Center. This is oneof the most interesting bogs in theAnoka sand plain. Common plantspecies include leatherleaf,cottongrass, three-way sedge, andbog cranberry.

Savanna, bog fieldtrip is Sept. 18

Native bottlebrushgrass likes dry shadeby Erin Hynes, president of theOrnamental Grass Society ofMinnesota .This is an abstract of herpresentation at the May 5 meeting.

Native bottlebrush grass (Elymushystrix; Hystrix patula) is one of thefew ornamental grasses adapted todry shade. It tolerates wet or dry soil,full shade to partial sun. Although itis reputed to be short lived, it re-seeds, although not invasively. Themost notable feature is the bristlyflower, after which the grass isnamed. Bottlebrush grass growsabout two feet tall and flowers fromJune through August. The flowerspersist into autumn.

3

Book Review by Dianne Plunkett

LathamCarolyn Harstad moved to

Lakeville, Minn., from Indiana in thefall of 2003 and shortly thereafterjoined the MNPS. She is a pastpresident and a founding member ofthe Indiana Native Plant andWildflower Society, as well as afounding member of the IndianaHosta Society.

In addition to authoring GoNative!, an exhaustive resource onnative plants, she is also the authorof Got Shade?, which the Dec. 8,2004, issue of the Minneapolis StarTribune listed as one of eightrecommended Christmas gift booksfor gardeners. Got Shade? was alsofeatured as one of the top 10gardening books in Best of the Yearin the February 2005 Fine Gardeningmagazine.

Go Native! is an outstandingresource for the native plantenthusiast. Not only does it tell youwhy and how to design a nativegarden for prairie, wetland,woodland or wildlife, it also makesrecommendations for vertical andhorizontal accents, in addition torecommendations for biohedges andferns. Go Native! has a chapter onexotics, where buckthorn gets theboot, with plenty of information onwhy and how to remove it. Given thatCarolyn is a Master Gardener, apopular garden lecturer, a certifiedLandscape Design Critic, and aregular contributor to severalgardening newsletters, the bookcontains much practical advice oneach species’ planting requirementsand propagation.

The book contains 125 lovely linedrawings by Jeanette Ming. Thereare also 100 of Carolyn’s owngorgeous color photographs, from

which the reader can readily see thatCarolyn has an eye for beautifulcombinations. It’s no accident thatshe is a flower show judge for theFederated Garden Clubs ofMinnesota.

Although the book was publishedas part of a series on Gardening inthe Lower Midwest, nearly all thenative plants included in Go Native!are fully hardy in Minnesota. The fewthat are not are at least marginallyhardy here. The extensive research,plus entertaining prose and plant lore,make this book a must read for nativeplant enthusiasts of all levels! Bothpaperback books retail for $24.95and are published by IndianaUniversity Press, 601 N. Morton St.,Bloomington, IN 47404. Go Native!and Got Shade? are available atmajor bookstores, or can be orderedon-line from Amazon.com or Barnes& Noble. They are also available atthe Minnesota LandscapeArboretum.

Go Native! by Carolyn Harstadis resource for native gardens

Grasses studiedduring workshop

The May 5, 2005, meeting featuredan interactive grass identificationworkshop, which was led by Anita F.Cholewa, Ph.D., curator oftemperate plants, J.F. Bell Museumof Natural History, University ofMinnesota, St. Paul.

The grass workshop started with abrief introduction to the grass family,consisting of the distinguishingfeatures and major groupings ascurrently understood. This wasfollowed by a hands-on portion, inwhich museum specimens ofcommon Minnesota grasses wereavailable for viewing, along withsamples of grass flowers.

MNPS members and visitorsexamined the many samples of

grasses, looking for those withfeatures that matched informationsheets Cholewa distributed. TheMuseum’s herbarium website(www.cbs.umn.edu/herbarium/vascularplantpage2.htm) contains adetailed and technical identificationguide to Minnesota’s grasses.

Survey identifiesprairie remnants inMower Countyby Paul J. Bockenstedt, a restorationecologist with Bonestroo andAssociates, Inc., and former resourcemanager for Metro State Parks. Thisis a summary of his talk at the Feb.3, 2005, MNPS meeting.

The Lyle-Austin WildlifeManagement Area encompassesapproximately 114 acres along 9.5miles of former Chicago GreatWestern railroad right-of-way on theIowan Surface landform between thecities of Lyle and Austin in southeastMinnesota.

This area includes a rich history inprairie, landform, and railroads. Theintersection of these factors with theapparent influence of the culture ofthe Chicago Great Western Railroadhad a major effect on conservingthese important tallgrass prairieremnants.

To better understand the locationand quality of prairie remnants andrare plant populations, a review ofhistorical railroad information wasconducted, and a botanical surveywas completed between 1999 and2003.

The inventory identified 23 areasof good to very good quality remnantprairie. A total of 324 species ofplants were noted, 47 of which arenon-natives. Over 150 populationsfor 10 rare plant species wereencountered, including those that arestate-listed, or not listed but trackedby the Minnesota Department ofNatural Resources Natural HeritageProgram. A new state record forsweet coneflower, Rudbeckiasubtomentosa, was also recorded.

4

The MNPS Board of Directors hasthree new members. Daniel Joneswas appointed in March to serve thefinal year of Dianne PlunkettLatham’s term. Mary Brown andSandy McCartney were elected bysociety members for three-year termsthat began in June. They succeedDoug Mensing and David Johnson.Jason Husveth, president, was re-elected to the board.

Mary Grace BrownMary Brown is a resident of

Bloomington. She has volunteered tohelp monitor and maintain GreyCloud Dunes and Nine Mile Creekprairie and to be more involved inrestoration.

“I am excited to become moreinvolved in the MNPS by serving onthe board,” she wrote. “I am anornamental gardener, using somenative plants, but am more interestedin restoration and seeing plants in thewild than in my garden. Therefore,I am grateful to the leaders who nowoffer more local field trips. I havebeen active in my Audubon chapter(which also meets at the refuge),enjoying many birding field trips,organizing two fundraising nativeplant garden tours that generated$2,000 profit, and leading springwildflower field trips. I am lookingforward to working with you all.”

William H. “Sandy” McCartney,

Jr.Sandy McCartney, a resident of St.

Louis Park, received a B.A. ineconomics and a M.S. in forestryfrom the University of Minnesota.He has been the tree inspector for St.Louis Park for the past three seasonsand went back to work for the citythe end of April. He and his wife,Tracy, have a 10-year-old daughter,Susan.

“I grew up in Wayzata, actuallyOrono, and what is now Wood RillScientific and Natural Area wasabout 12 feet from my bedroomwindow,” he wrote. “I spent manyhours in the woods, and that isprobably where I learned to love theoutdoors. I spent over five yearsdriving over the road, have workedconstruction, been a telephoneoperator, and worked for UnitedParcel Service from 1993 to 2003.

“I was first invited to attend theMinnesota Native Plant Societymeetings by Janet Larson, but wasunable to attend until I left UPS.Besides my new board position withthe society, I am the secretary/treasurer for the College of NaturalResources Alumni Society and alsothe national board representativefrom the college to the University ofMinnesota Alumni Association.”

Daniel JonesDaniel Jones is a botanist and

certified ecologist with a career spentin natural resource inventory andmanagement. He currently works asan environmental scientist for BarrEngineering in Edina. His wife,Karil Kucera, is a professor of EastAsian Studies and Art History at St.Olaf College, Northfield.

Daniel has worked in the Midwestand the Pacific Northwest, in both thepublic and private sectors. His workhas included wetland delineation andmitigation design, forest inventories,rare plant surveys and vegetationmanagement plans. He has workedin a wide variety of vegetation typesfrom prairie to forest, and fromwetlands to subalpine meadows. Heis also a trained mycologist and hasconducted fungal surveys, as well assurveys for sensitive moss and lichenspecies.

Jones started his career in 1984 inthe Chicago area and returned to theMidwest two years ago, after 11

years in the Pacific Northwest. Hewas active with the WashingtonNative Plant Society, serving as

editor of Douglasia, the WNPSquarterly journal. He also wasWNPS liaison to Earth Share of

Washington.

“I am impressed by the talent,knowledge, and passion for native

plant stewardship that I see at theMNPS meetings, and I am eager totap into that passion to help the

Society grow,” he wrote. Joneshopes to continue promoting MNPSadvocacy for conservation of

sensitive native plant species andstewardship of native naturalcommunities.

Mary Brown, Sandy McCartney, andDaniel Jones join MNPS board

appears to be spreading into the

countryside from metropolitan areas.

When a Big Woods remnant is

surrounded by farms, deer are

maintained at relatively low

densities. When a few houses are

built, however, hunting pressure goes

down and deer multiply. If they were

not already present, European

earthworms, slugs, and invasive

plant species such as European

buckthorn and garlic mustard also

arrive with the first wave of houses.

Native Big Woods plant

communities are winking out one by

one across the landscape, and a large-

scale research and conservation

program will be necessary to save

these native communities.

Continued from page 1

Endangered forests

5

by Jason Husveth, president, MNPSGerry Drewry was awarded the

Minnesota Native Plant Society’sLifetime Honorary MembershipAward April 7 at the 2005 annualsymposium. Gerry has been amember of the Minnesota NativePlant Society since 1985 (the societywas founded in 1982).

She learned about the society fromattending the 1985 symposium as aprivate landowner, interested inlearning about the native plants andnative habitats of Minnesota,wanting to apply this information tothe restoration and management ofher land in Hampton (nearNorthfield), and to help educateothers about Minnesota’s nativeflora.

Since her introduction to thesociety in 1985, Gerry has attendedevery annual symposium and hascontributed her talents andenthusiasm as an active member.Each year, Gerry is a regular attendeeof our monthly membershipmeetings, and has attended manyfield trips over the past two decades.Gerry also served on the board ofdirectors for two terms, before shebecame the editor of the society’snewsletter, the Minnesota PlantPress, and she still attends mostquarterly board meetings.

Most impressive are Gerry’sconsiderable volunteer services to thesociety, which she adeptly providesgraciously and quietly behind the

Gerry Drewry receives MNPSlifetime honorary membership

scenes. Gerry has served as the editorof the Minnesota Plant Press since1998 (that’s 28 issues), and has donea fantastic job as editor, improvingthe quality of the newsletter, andultimately working with the board tofacilitate the electronic publication ofthe Plant Press in the past few years.

Gerry has also served as a primaryorganizer and facilitator of theMNPS annual native plant sale,along with David Crawford. She hasserved in this role for approximately10 years. Each year, Gerry informsour members, board, and othersabout the coming plant sale, plansthe details of the event, and overseesthe sale at the June meeting. Gerryhas given so much of her time andtalents to the society, and we arehonored to have her as our fourthrecipient of the society’s lifetimehonorary membership award!

Gerry Drewry holds plaque presented by Jason Husveth

Read Plant ProtectionReview on-line

A Minnesota Department ofAgriculture publication, PlantProtection Review, is an excellentresource that will keep you abreast ofinsect pests, noxious weeds, and plantdiseases, what the department is doingabout them, and what you can do. Thenewsletter merged two previousnewsletter publications, the Overstoryand Nursery News, into a singlepublication. The intent is to providethe green industry, the public, andother interested parties with timelyarticles and information relating tonursery inspection, exportcertification, shade tree programs, andinvasive species, as well as seed andnoxious weeds. The next issue is tobe published in July.

The newsletter can be viewed bygoing to www.mda.state.mn.us Tosubscribe to the e-mailed version, justsend an e-mail addressed toMajorDomo@State.MN.US. In thebody of the message, type: SubscribeMDA-Plant-Protection-Review

6

Plant Loreby Thor KommedahlWhat is sneezeweed?

Sneezeweed is Heleniumautumnale (and some other species)in the sunflower family.

How did it get its names?

Legend has it that Helenium isnamed for Helen of Troy, who criedat seeing the lives lost by those whocame to rescue her, and where hertears fell, these plants sprang up.“Sneezeweed” comes from the plantused as a snuff. Menominee Indiansground mature flower heads into apowder to sniff for treatment of headcolds. The powdered leaves inducesneezing.

What does the plant look like?

This fibrous-rooted, nativeperennial has yellow ray flowers inwhich each petal has 3 shallow lobes.The center of the head is sphericaland ocher-yellow. The ellipticalleaves are punctuated with glands. Itgrows from two to five feet tall andis often found in clumps.

Where does it grow?

It is widespread in Minnesota,except in the arrowhead region, andgrows in open, moist areas, oftenalong streams.

Is it poisonous or medicinal?

Both. Sneezeweed (severalHelenium spp.) is a major economicproblem for sheep raisers; in oneyear, for example, 8,000 sheep diedin Colorado from sneezeweedpoisoning. Liver and kidneys aredamaged.

The plant produces a lactone,helenalin, which has anti-tumoractivity and is being tested by theNational Cancer Institute. Thislactone also is a powerful insectrepellent. Tea made fromsneezeweed is used to treat intestinalworms. Sneezeweed may causecontact dermatitis.

Has it any horticultural uses?

It has been grown in backs ofborders or in wild gardens. Varietieshave been developed that thrive infairly rich soil in sunny locations. Itcan be propagated by seeds, cuttings,and division.

A petite pink flower that hasn’tbeen seen in 70 years has beenrediscovered on the flanks of MountDiablo in Contra Costa County by aUniversity of California, Berkeley,graduate student.

The Mount Diablo buckwheat,Eriogonum truncatum, “has been aHoly Grail in the East Bay for severaldecades,” according to UC Berkeleybotanist Barbara Ertter, whoconfirmed the identification in thefield on May 20. Last reported in1936, the flower was presumedextinct, she said, because its habitathas been overrun by introducedgrasses. It is one of only three plants,all of them rare, that are endemic toMount Diablo.

Michael Park had the missingbuckwheat on his mind May 10,when he hiked to a remote corner ofMount Diablo State Park. Followinga different routine from his normalsurvey, he stumbled across the plants— about 20 in all — in full bloom,looking like pink baby’s breath. Lessthan eight inches tall, the annuals areinconspicuous and were growing ina balding area between full chaparraland non-native grassland.

The discovery site, a full day’s hikefrom public trailheads in the park, isbeing kept secret for now so thatadmirers won’t flock to the area andinadvertently destroy therediscovered plant.

Ertter, the curator of western NorthAmerican flora at UC Berkeley’sJepson Herbarium, noted that onepriority should be to gather seeds andstart cultivating the buckwheat at theUC Botanical Garden. Cultivatedspecimens conserved by the garden,

which is part of the Center for PlantConservation network, will providea reserve of seeds in case the speciesdeclines further.

“At some point, if we have themature seeds and can get them startedin cultivation so there is a backup,then we can relax a little more,”Ertter said.

Park, 35, began surveying the floraof Mount Diablo three years ago aspart of Ertter’s ongoing surveillanceof the area’s plants. Now finishinghis first year as a graduate student inthe Department of IntegrativeBiology, Park found the buckwheatwhile completing his survey duringa prime time of the year, when plantsare flowering profusely after one ofthe latest and rainiest winters indecades. He divulged his secret toErtter and alerted the park service.

Two days later, he hiked with twofellow graduate students to takephotos, which convinced Ertter hehad indeed found the elusivebuckwheat. First reported in 1862,there are only seven historicalrecords of the plant, the last in 1936.

Park suspects that theunseasonably late rains may haveproduced the flowering, since manynative plants produce seeds thatremain dormant in the soil fordecades until the right moistureconditions make them germinate.

Brent Mishler, UC Berkeleyprofessor of integrative biology anddirector of the Jepson and UniversityHerbaria, noted that this is typical ofplants in Mediterranean-typeclimates like California. “It reallydemonstrates the importance ofcontinuing floristic and systematicstudies across the decades andcenturies, the key role of herbaria,and the need to maintain strongeducational programs in these areas,”he said.

(The complete article, with photos,can be seen at www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/05/24_buckwheat.shtml)

Mt. Diablo buckwheat rediscovered

7

Minnesota Native Plant Society

University of Minnesota

250 Biological Sciences Center

1445 Gortner Ave.

St. Paul, MN 55108

Summer 2005