Prairie Botanist

This was my first time at Botany, and I will be back. It was a smaller group than Ecology and Evolution, but compelling research has been presented in abundance…and I think people that nerd on plants tend to be friendly, so it is easier for my particular Myer-Briggs types to strike up conversations with previous strangers.

Kellen Calinger put together an amazing phenology colloquium that featured a series of dynamic speakers and top-notch scientists. Ben VanderWeide just started working with phenology this spring with a herbarium and long-term first-flowering date “side project” for the flora of the Flint Hills, KS, but it was clear from the research presented here and conversations with presenters, that it is an area ripe for discovery and collaboration…and what a perfect year to talk phenology

Perhaps the best statement, or the best thing to learn, was “that there are people called quercophiles”,

and I suppose so am I.

Quercus macrocarpa at the Konza Prairie Biological Research Station.