Chamaecrista Flowering Project

Weaver Dunes is a large, undisturbed prairie near Wabasha, MN, and is maintained by the Nature Conservancy and is the source of all Chamaecrista seed planted in Cowling and McKnight (the genetic origin of all those sites). Weaver Dunes has six main known Chamaecrista sites, but we observed Chamaecrista growing in many other areas, especially along the road side and other marginal land. Because Weaver Dunes is much further away from Carleton than our other sites, we only came here after the plants had already flowered. As such we only have data on total plant height and NFOF for these sites.

• Soil core analysis shows that the soil at weaver dunes at all location was sandier than any sites in McKnight or in the Cowling Arboretum. This suggests that Chamaecrista actually grows better in sandier soils.

• The plants here were the tallest, had the largest number of expanded leaves and the most auxiliary branching observed at any other location. This would suggest that Chamaecrista here had ‘the home field advantage” and were best adapted to this ecosystem, which is why they exhibited the most growth.