A few weeks ago I had a visit with a new professor at South Dakota State University (SDSU), Dr. Katherine Wenzel. We were introduced by my buddy, Dr. Lora Perkins, while Lora and I were discussing how we would cooperate this summer. Dr. Wenzel’s office is next door to Lora, but she had only enough time to visit to learn that I had a particular interest in downy paintbrush (Castilleja sessiflora), which had been the topic of her doctoral research. In my last post I had discussed my concerns with the population I had established in my restoration. I have thousands of plants, but all of them come from seed collected from a few plants on a single hill in a nearby pasture. My concern is that their genetics, which may come from a single “founder” plant, will drift into an inbred state and would be unlikely to have the genetic variety for long-term evolutionary fitness.

I returned to Brookings a couple weeks ago to meet with Dr. Wenzel and her master’s candidate, Isa Dalton. Isa’s project is to study what pollinates downy paintbrush, and how that relates to morphological differences. Changes in the color and the shape of the blooms seem to develop to adapt to the local pollinators. In this case, if the pollinator is a hummingbird then a red bloom is wonderful, as it is likely to draw hummingbirds in, but wasted if the pollinator is a bee, as bees don’t respond to the color red. Similarly, if your pollinator has a long beak or a long tongue like a hawkmoth (a common pollinator in the southern part of the downy paintbrush range, the flowers need to be long enough to draw the pollinator in to brush against the anthers to pick up pollen, but if the pollinator is a bee, a long narrow flower will just frustrate the bee which can’t reach the nectar. I’m sure I am oversimplifying here, and may need correction, but this could drive a separation of populations adapting to the pollinators available, which could eventually drive speciation. Downy paintbrush blooms in this part of the world are white, while in the Southern Plains they show color. Really cool stuff! Below is an example from my restoration. no red in these flowers (all the funny looking greenish-white plants). These could still be pollinated by hawkmoths, which would mean blooms must last into the night, but perhaps they are on their own path; again, very cool stuff!

I have been lamenting over the years several “mistakes” I have made by planting poorly adapted seed, primarily seed that lacked cold hardiness. I had never thought that I could make a different mistake should the blooms be the wrong shape or color for the local pollinators. Downy paintbrush is also partially parasitic. Could I end up planting seed that was relying on a host plant species that I don’t have in the restorations? There are a lot of roads to go down here. I had always read that speciation, the process by which one species becomes two or more, was due to geographic isolation, but the world is a big and complicated place with many lessons to teach. The development of different phenotypes can lead to speciation with different types of isolation driving the ratchet of evolution. During her research Dr. Wenzel did a genetic analysis of plants from widely different geographies, and there seemed to be very small differences in the genomes. Some phenotypic differences might not take many changes in genes, but if they lead to reproductive isolation, genetic drift will insure the differences will accumulate.

Another implication of the small genotypic differences is that the spread of downy paintbrush over much of the western United States may be more recent than the end of the last glaciation. It may not have followed the receding of the glaciers, but may have needed some small genetic changes to be able to travel north. Those changes may have been small genetically, but with significant implications for their ability to withstand cold weather, or perhaps to adapt to different pollinators. On the other hand, their true home may be down in Mexico, and they just had farther to travel than prairie plants whose glacial refuge was Kansas. These are all fun speculations, with me obviously in deep water with a precarious hold on a life jacket. I hope to learn a lot the next couple years, lessons that will help me understand much more than the little paintbrush plants.

The little hill in the above picture is where all the seed came from, starting from 10′ above where the porcupine grass bunches end, going to the ridgeline, but not over the top where the land flattens out again. The soil is not only droughty from the 8-10% slope, but from the gravel that lies beneath the grass; an extremely xeric site. Though the plants may need companions (they are referred to as hemi-parasitic, partially parasitic, so they may be able to live without snacking on their neighbors), they obviously won’t put up with large, competitive companions. This may seem a pretty narrow niche to inhabit, but I have quite a few acres of that kind of site in my restorations, the places where corn and soybeans withered in late July and August when the land was cropped. A small handful of paintbrush seed, so tiny that it looks like dust, was able to colonize a large area. This is all rich with possibilities.

I look at this as a big opportunity for me. One of the stated goals of this project from the beginning was to use the land for education and research. While I have hosted many groups, that is no longer an easy task without a voice. This project speaks more to my remaining abilities, and I hope to be able to help Isa have a kick-ass thesis project, and if we are lucky, do significant research. To be honest, it makes me a little giddy. What great fun for a dried up old man to be able to have! What luck to be able to help Isa with her career! What satisfaction it would be to provide an introduction for my successors in managing our restoration to learn from the experience, so it will be easier for them to facilitate other research projects down the road! As I stated in a recent post, I no longer have a 5 or 10 year plan; I have a plan to be a warrior and make the most of 2026, and if I am fortunate, there will be more years ahead. The world is a wonderful place, even with all the ugliness, and every day is an opportunity to remove a little of that ugliness for others and show them the beauty around the corner. If a person’s eyes are open, opportunities abound. The trick is to stay mindful and see the opportunities. Once a person recognizes some possibility it becomes evident what must be done. And if you miss an opportunity, don’t beat yourself up; forgive yourself and be ready for what comes next. That too is the path of the warrior.