One of my primary hopes for the restorations I am doing is to extend the reach of the native species that I have growing in my relict prairies in the hills of northeast South Dakota. Without getting too deep into the biological scrum that is inherent in the concept of a species, it is obvious that the plants that I have growing in my prairies are not the same genetics as the plants that I grow from purchased seed. They are the same species in the sense that they will cross pollinate with the plants grown from purchased seed, but the phenotype, the physical representation of the plant as it grows and develops, is different. In some cases, such as the blanketflower that was in the CRP mix I purchased three years ago, they are very different. I looked back at the seed tags and saw that the seed came from Colorado, at least 600 miles away, for crying out loud. I was too naive when I began this process to even realize this was how the business worked, though in retrospect I should have been asking more questions. This certainly doesn’t guarantee that the Colorado blanketflower will die soon, or that it can’t contribute to the ecosystem services I hope the restoration accomplishes, but it brings up some thorny issues.

First and foremost, is whether they will live. Selections on most wildflowers/forbs and even many grasses are made to appeal to gardeners, not restorers. That means it is almost inevitable that the selections came from more gentle, forgiving environments than my prairies. Exhibit A is below:

These pasques were blooming, and at least trying to pollinate, on a 35 degree day. While it had been warmer several days before, raising the soil temperature enough to stimulate initiation of spring growth, the highest air temperature for four days was 40. They don’t look very impressive, but I wonder if pasques growing from purchased seed would be out blooming and trying to pollinate. While on the whole it was a very easy winter, there was a ten day stretch in February when temperatures failed to get above zero, with minimal snow cover. What effect will that have on my blanketflowers from Colorado? Am I likely to lose a chunk of my original seeding? I don’t know, but will begin to find out very soon as soil temps rise.

While survival is paramount, I also wonder about the timing of bloom matching the timing of pollinator activity, the possibility that cross pollination back to my native forbs may actually weaken them and even the introduced plants’ compatibility with the local microbial community. Marissa Ahlering, with The Nature Conservancy, has presented the idea that climate resilience may be enhanced by seed sourced from outside the local community, as opposed to the accepted wisdom of only using locally sourced seed, but she was suggesting incremental changes, not adding seed gathered or selected from 600 miles away. Ultimately the real question is what seed will further my long term goals for the restoration.

It is fair to now ask where I am going with this. The seedings are done and any additional seed will come from seed I gather. Why beat the topic about the head, so to speak? Well, I am afraid that as long as I am alive nothing will ever truly be completely finished. There are many tangential paths to follow.

The next part of this story begins with a very interesting visit to an old friend a week ago. Dave Ode was the State Botanist for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks for many years, and has an incredibly broad experience in the conservation history and needs in South Dakota. He has chosen as a retirement project increasing seed from selections from a number of the native milkweed species in South Dakota. His house in the country is ringed by small plots of these milkweeds, growing out the seed. I was very interested because I have already been gathering some seed from my three year old restoration, spreading it over the 20 acres that I seeded last fall, and even letting my friend Ben gather some to sell. What changed how I viewed the project, however was a simple descriptive phrase that Dave used, that he was growing “Foundation seed”. Foundation seed is a common phrase in the agricultural seed industry designating the original stock to increase seed from a new, discrete genetic selection. Foundation seed implies that the particular genetics is of a quality to be increased so that it could be widely planted. A farmer doesn’t just plant wheat. The farmer plants wheat of a particular variety that was selected for certain qualities and increased from Foundation seed.

We didn’t get too deep into Dave’s thought process, but I think that he was concerned that in the huge push to plant milkweeds in support of monarch butterflies, a lot of ill adapted seed was being planted. Several of the species that Dave is growing are completely unavailable from commercial vendors, and all was collected from native sources in South Dakota that he has documented. I need to have him elaborate more on the potential avenues for distributing the seed, but what he has told me so far implies that he feels the needs are large enough and varied enough that it is not necessary to worry about it too much. He mentioned several parties he had been in contact with regarding distribution of the seed he grows, and when I left he gave me small amounts of two species of milkweed to use in my restoration. I now wonder if I shouldn’t treat them as foundation seed and use them for plots to further increase availability.

And that brings me back to my prairies, my restorations and my plans for the year. I had already talked to my friend Ben about starting some seed plots of gathered seed, primarily as a potential income source. Now I am thinking a little bigger, in effect establishing my own foundation seed enterprise. What species will I concentrate on and what properties will I look for? Well. I won’t overthink it. If there is a species that is difficult to access it will be a candidate, and its ability to thrive in the environment of my prairies is the property that I value. Maybe the seed will only be used by Ben and me, but maybe there will be others interested in seed from this geography, from this sort of site. Maybe I have something to offer that part of the restoration world that is working to bring back prairies in a circle around where I live.

If I were interested in doing a restoration at Jamestown, North Dakota or Brookings, South Dakota or perhaps even Alexandria, Minnesota, I know I would be interested in slender milkvetch seed sourced from a collection on my prairies in Day County. This is one of many species of forbs in my prairies that cannot be purchased. Perhaps I can facilitate their availability for others This is potentially a large project, far more than I would ever be able to accomplish myself in my diminished physical state, but I am not alone. I already have some potential partners. But first I have much to learn.

Postscript: I wrote the first draft of this two days ago. Today I returned to the restoration to look around and see what had begun growing. Well, not too damn many of my blanketflowers are growing. Blanketflower is not a long lived species but I still didn’t expect to find 90% of the plants dead. I think my Colorado plants got a little stressed during the February cold spell and gave up. The restoration was awash in blanketflower blooms the past two years and perhaps I will have a new crop from all the seed that has dropped. I think that convinces me that blanketflower from my native prairies is going to be one of my Foundation seed choices.