Western Prairie Fringed Orchid

The Western Prairie Fringed Orchid is a Federally endangered orchid found in northwestern Minnesota and northeastern North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

The experiment we went to check on has been going on for 12 years; the plants are in several experimental plots with different disturbance management regimes. The disturbance regimes are haying (many of these are found in hayed fields on private lands), spring fires, and fall fires. The point is to see how well the plant does under these different conditions in order to help with conservation efforts.

Our protocol involved walking through the plots, flagging plants and counting the number of flowering heads.

... there were tons of mosquitoes. I'll be uploading more pictures of various plants and some insects tomorrow. Check back tomorrow evening (US time) for that (maybe it'll be Wednesday. We'll see)