Land managers restoring and managing prairie habitat aim to support the most diverse native plant communities possible. However, the presence of aggressive plant species, both non-native and native, can hinder the achievement of these goals. This project focuses on one particularly aggressive native species, Solidago altissima, which can overwhelm a prairie community if left unmanaged. The goal of this project is to understand variation in important plant traits and chromosome counts across the distribution of the species in the Chicago region.

The REU intern will conduct fieldwork to collect samples, measure plant traits (e.g., leaf area), and monitor vegetation at Bartel Grassland and Bobolink Family Area. Once material has been collected, leaf material will be brought back to the labs at Chicago Botanic Garden, and a flow cytometer used to assess ploidy levels in the new and previously collected samples. The intern will work closely with project mentors to develop a hypothesis about whether plant traits or other site characteristics (e.g., habitat type, soil characteristics, and management history) influence the presence of different ploidy levels. Results of this research will inform the design of a larger research project investigating the most effective methods to manage S. altissima across the region.