The characteristics, or traits, that plants have can affect whether they survive in restorations that aim to rehabilitate degraded sites. Traits also influence how plants interact with other individuals which also affects how successful they are, so, our goal is to understand the traits of native species that are important to tallgrass restoration to better evaluate how they may behave in restoration contexts. We are using a field experiment in Mettawa, Illinois as a part of the NSF Biological Integration Institute called The New Roots for Restoration: http://www.newrootsforrestoration.org/ and a greenhouse experiment at the Chicago Botanic Garden to better understand plant traits and the goal of this REU project is to understand how root traits respond for interacting plants in a greenhouse study. We will work to grow these plants as they interact and the REU has an opportunity to ask questions of their interest on the resulting trait data. Work will also include data collection and work at the nearby field site. Skills that an REU intern will gain include data collection, plant ecology knowledge, data analysis, and lab processing of samples. The REU intern will spend time in an office setting reading and computing for analyses, in the greenhouse collecting data and managing the experiment, and in the field with data collection and work. We will support the REU in all of these steps as they learn and grow, and the REU intern will also be encouraged to present their research findings at conferences and be encouraged to, and supported in, publishing their findings.