Tag Archives: Lucas

PolliNation Podcast and Lab Update

Posted on by

If you love bees, and you have not yet subscribed to PolliNation, you’re missing out! OSU Professor and PolliNation podcast host, Andony Melathopolous, does a wonderful job assembling a diverse array of guests to talk all things pollinator.

Aaron Anderson recently joined Andony on episode 94 of thePolliNation podcast, to talk about his research on native plants, different insect groups, and gardeners.

Aaron talks about the 100+ study plots that he manages (two of which you can see, below), as well as which plants were most attractive to bees (such as the California poppy, on the left) versus those that were more attractive to gardeners (such as the Oregon iris, on the right).

In other news, our lab group has been very busy. All of the 2017 and 2018 bees from our garden pollinator study have been identified to species (unless they are truly recalcitrant to being ID’d to the level of species).  Gabe has been working with Lincoln Best to identify the 2018 bees.  The 2017 were verified by Sara Kornbluth, and provided a great reference collection against which we could compare the 2018 bees. Gabe has been a short-time member of our lab group, but his expertise has been a huge benefit to our program. He leaves us at the end of April to start field work in the College of Forestry. After that, he heads to UC Davis to do his Ph.D.

For the garden bee project, we have >50 verified species of bees collected from Portland-area gardens, with a few more at the morpho-species level. This summer will be our final year of collections.

This summer will also be Aaron’s final year of field work at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center. This final year will help to resolve some of the differences we saw between his 2017 and 2018 data set.

After two years of amazing assistance in the lab and in the field, Isabella has started an independent research project on campus. She has planted some of Aaron’s study plants in gardens on campus, and is looking to see if bee visitation and bee communities markedly change, when you take them out of single-species plantings (like Aaron is studying) and put them into a garden setting.

Mykl is working to write up his urban soils data for publication. We are also hoping to do a side publication, comparing the soil types that we’re finding in home gardens, and seeing how they align with the types of soils that nesting bees prefer.

Lauren is writing up her capstone paper, and is preparing to defend this term. She surveyed gardeners to try to understand how well they can identify bees from other insects, and how well they knew bee-friendly plants from those that offered few or no nectar/pollen resources to bees.

Signe is taking the data that we are collecting, and working our findings into the online Master Gardener course. The best part of our work is being able to see gardeners put some of our research-based recommendations into action. Signe plays a huge role in translating our work for the general public.

Angelee is a relatively new member of the lab. She comes to us from the OSU STEM Leaders program. She’s learning lab protocols and lending a hand on just about every project. She has been a joy to work with.

Lucas has moved on from the lab, but still helps us with remote data-basing work, on occasion. He was a joy to work with, and I feel lucky that he stuck with us for a few years.

This fall, Jen will be joining our group as a new M.S. student. We will also be close to launching the first course in the online Urban Agriculture certificate program, which is being spear-headed by Mykl. We should also be pushing out a few more papers from our garden work, to join our first concept paper on the value of urban garden bees to urban and peri-urban agriculture.

 

Plant of the Week: Common Yarrow

Posted on by

This entry is from Lucas Costner, an undergraduate horticulture major at Oregon State University.  It highlights one of the plants that Aaron Anderson is using in his research.

Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) isn’t just common — it’s nearly ubiquitous throughout the Pacific Northwest. Found in lawns, along roadsides, in fields and gardens, it’s easy to allow yarrow’s abundance to overshadow its potential in the landscape, its benefit to wildlife, and its historical value as a medicinal plant. 

A perennial native across the temperate Northern Hemisphere, yarrow has a long history of human association (1, 2). Its scientific name, Achillea, comes from the ancient Greek hero Achilles, who used the plant to help dress battle wounds (2). Similarly, in the Northwest, indigenous peoples made poultices and teas from the plant (2). 

In the landscape, it may be helpful for gardeners to consider mimicking natural distribution patterns by massing yarrow into larger groups of plants (3). Yarrow grows densely — emerging up to three feet in height and spreading from a fibrous horizontal root system (1). White, sometimes pink, ray flowers appear at the end of stems in nearly flat inflorescences (2). These plants are very drought tolerant and appear naturally in disturbed areas, meaning they will thrive in the average garden (1). 

As a member of the Asteraceae family along with goldenrod and Douglas aster, yarrow’s bountiful floral display offers excellent forage for generalist pollinator species throughout the summer months and is a common choice for butterfly gardens (1). In addition to its floral resources, the foliage is noted as a source of food and habitat to many species of butterfly and moth caterpillars (4). 

References: 

1. Hurteau, M. D. (2013, November 13). Common Yarrow [PDF]. USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center.

2. Mathews, D. (2016). Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains. Portland, OR: Timber Press.

3. Rainer, T., & West, C. (2015). Planting in a Post Wild World. Portland, OR: Timber Press.

4. Robinson, G. S., P. R. Ackery, I. J. Kitching, G. W. Beccaloni & L. M. Hernández, 2010. HOSTS – A Database of the World’s Lepidopteran Hostplants. Natural History Museum, London. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosts. (Accessed: 29 Aug. 2018).