fall 2005 minnesota plant press
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Minnesota Plant PressThe Minnesota Native Plant Society Newsletter
Volume 25 Number 1 Fall 2005
Monthly meetingsMinnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Visitor Center, 3815 American Blvd. East
Bloomington, MN 55425-1600
952-854-5900
6:30 p.m. — Building east door opens6:30 p.m. — Refreshments,
information, Room A7 – 9 p.m — Program, society business7:30 p.m. — Building door is locked
9:00 p.m. — Building closes
ProgramsThe MNPS meets the first Thursday in
October, November, December, February,March, April, May, and June. Check theWeb site for more program information.
New MNPS Web sitewww.mnnps.orge-mail: [email protected]
MNPS ListserveSend a message that includes the word
“subscribe” or “unsubscribe” and yourname in the body of the message to:[email protected]
Nov. 3: “Plant Communities of the
Mississippi River Gorge,” by Karen
Schik, ecologist with Friends of the
Mississippi River and MNPS board
member. Seed Exchange. Labels should
include your name, common and scientific
names of plant, seed origin (nursery name
if plant was purchased, or city/county
location) and habitat (prairie, savanna,
wetland, woodland).
Dec. 1: “Moonwort Madness, Part II,”
by Cindy Johnson-Groh, biologist,
Gustavus Adolphus College. This is an
update of her 1999 program on this
interesting Minnesota fern.
Feb. 2: To be announced
Wild lupine has key rolein saving endangeredKarner blue butterfly
Wild lupine, Lupinus perennis, is the only plant eaten by thecaterpillars of the endangered Karner blue butterfly, Lycaeides melissasamuelis. Efforts to preserve the Karner blue are underway inMinnesota, which is at the western edge of the butterfly’s traditionalrange. Today it can be found in two valleys in the Whitewater WildlifeManagement Area near Winona. Until the early 1980s, a colony ofKarner blues also existed alongside a gravel road in Cedar CreekNatural History Area in Anoka County. Then the wild lupine wasscraped off by a grader during a road improvement project, and thebutterflies vanished.
The topside of the male Karner blue is silvery or dark blue withnarrow black margins; the female’s topside is grayish brown to blue,with irregular bands of orange crescents inside the narrow black border.They were named for the vanished upstate New York hamlet of Karner,where millions of the butterflies once flocked. The inch-wide insectswere once plentiful in a narrow swath of oak savanna and pine barrensin 12 states from Maine to Minnesota and in Canada. They are nowfound in isolated pockets in seven states. Wisconsin is a leader in thepreservation efforts.
In Minnesota, current efforts to preserve the Karner blue are focusedon restoring oak savannas that have open patches in tree canopiesand sandy soil where wild lupine thrives. Jaime Edwards, a nongamewildlife specialist with the Minnesota DNR, has been working in theWhitewater area for about five years, endeavoring to recreate thehabitat that Karner blues prefer. She said that Minnesota may havestarted its conservation efforts too late. “We’re really playing catch-up to get the habitat in shape before we lose the butterfly,” she said.
Minnesota preservation efforts began in the 1990s, when CynthiaLane studied the Karner blue for four years while pursuing a doctoratein conservation biology at the University of Minnesota. She learnedthe insect’s life cycle, which includes two generations a year, and the
In this issueFlora ID CD-ROM ..............2
Winter botany field trip .......2
President’s column ..............3
Moonseed (Plant Lore )........3
varied habitat of sun, partial shadeand dense shade that it requires.
For additional information, goto www.fws.gov/Midwest/Endangered/ or to MajaBeckstrom’s article in the Sept.25, 2005, St. Paul Pioneer Press.
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MNPS Board ofDirectors
President: Jason Husveth,[email protected]
Vice-President: Scott Milburn,[email protected]
Secretary: Karen Schik,[email protected]
Treasurer: Ron Huber,[email protected]
Ken Arndt, board member,[email protected]
Mary G. Brown, board member,[email protected]
Daniel Jones, board member,[email protected]
Shirley Mah Kooyman, boardmember, [email protected]
Sandy McCartney, boardmember, [email protected]
Program Coordinator: LindaHuhn, 612-374-1435
Listserv Coordinator: CharlesUmbanhowar, [email protected]
Field Trips:[email protected]
Memberships:[email protected]; 651-739-4323
Historian/Archives:[email protected]
Technical or membershipinquiries: [email protected]
Minnesota Plant Press editor:Gerry Drewry, phone, 651-463-8006; [email protected]
Prairie plants on the WebPlants in Prairie Communities is a
University of Minnesota Web site. Itcontains information compiled byMNPS member Roy Robison,Donald B. White, and Mary H.Meyer about three typical prairiecommunities — wet, mesic, and dry— and the most significant plantsfound in each of them. Go tow w w . e x t e n s i o n . u m n . e d u /d i s t r i b u t i o n / h o r t i c u l t u r e /DG3238.html
Winter botany fieldtrip is Nov. 12 atMaplewoodby Ken Arndt
Join MNPS President JasonHusveth and MNPS Board MemberKen Arndt for a winter botany fieldtrip at the Maplewood Nature CenterSaturday, Nov. 12. We will beleading a walk through the naturecenter grounds to learn about themany native wildflowers, grasses,sedges, trees, and shrubs and willfocus on the winter aspects ofvegetation, natural communities, andvegetation associations.
The field trip will start at 9 a.m.and go until noon. We will meetinside at the nature center, where wewill learn about the history of theMaplewood Nature Center andbriefly talk about the ins and outs ofwinter botany before we ventureoutside.
Depending on the time and amountof ground we cover at the naturecenter, we may drive to Jim’s Prairie,which is located a short distance fromMaplewood Nature Center. Manyconsider Jim’s Prairie to be the finestwet prairie in Ramsey County.Although only five acres in size, ithas more than 150 different plantsthroughout the preserve.
For sign-up information anddirections, go to our Web site atwww.mnnps.org or e-mail Jason [email protected] to sign up inadvance. Space will be limited to 30society members, so sign up todayto reserve your spot.
by Ron Huber
A new expert identification systemfor Minnesota plants is available on
CD-ROM and may be purchased ata discount by members of theMinnesota Native Plant Society.
Flora ID Northwest, Minnesota isan interactive key developed byBruce Barnes that allows the user to
identify a plant using any number ofdifferent characteristics, such asleaves, stem, inflorescence, flower or
fruit. It has color photos of almostall Minnesota native and introducednaturalized plant species. Detailed
descriptions and geographic rangesfor each species are included, as wellas some line drawings. For a
description and demo, go to:www.xidservices.com/FID
The CDs (for Windows 98 throughXP) are available for purchase, by
members only, through theMinnesota Native Plant Society for$70. The regular price is $100. A
portion of the proceeds will supportthe society.
A similar key for plants in the Great
Plains covers a much broader area.MNPS members may purchase it for$150. Multiple-site licenses are also
available. The CDs are published byFlora ID Northwest, LLC.
Both the Minnesota and Great
Plains Flora ID keys will be availableat MNPS regular monthly meetingsthrough Treasurer Ron Huber. Both
CDs are also available through themail, but add $2 each for shipping.For mail order, contact Ron at
[email protected] [email protected]
Bruce Barnes suggests that
purchasers contact him at
Plant identification system onCD-ROM is available tomembers at discounted price
[email protected] about once a yearfor any updates, which he will sendfree.
Plant Loreby Thor KommedahlWhat is moonseed?
Moonseed, also called Canadamoonseed, is Menispermumcanadense, a member of themoonseed family.
How did it get its name?The bluish-black fruits (drupes)
each contain a single, crescent moon-shaped, flat seed, hence the nameMenispermum, which means“moonseed” from the Greek words.
What does the plant look like?It is a climbing, woody vine up to
12 feet long. Leaves have three toseven shallow lobes, and the petioleis attached to the blade above the leafbase. The flowers are small andwhitish. Some have mistakenlyidentified moonseed as wild grapebecause of the resemblances ofleaves, fruits, and vines. Leaves aremore obtuse than grape leaves.Remember, wild grape vines havetendrils.
Where does it grow?It is native to Minnesota in rich,
moist thickets and along streambanks.
Is it edible or medicinal?The yellow root extract once
served as a substitute for sarsaparillain soft drinks. Early on, it was usedas a diuretic and laxative and evenlisted then as an official drug in theUS Pharmacopeia.
But is it poisonous?Yes. Fruits and seeds are
poisonous. Cases of poisoning, withsome fatalities, have been reportedfrom children confusing moonseedwith wild grapes (which are edible).The poison is an alkaloid that affectsthe nervous system. Menispermum isin the family of plants that producetubocurarine, the chief ingredient ofcurare — the South American arrowpoison.
Would anyone actually cultivatethis plant?
Yes, it is cultivated outdoors for itsfoliage. It can be propagated fromseeds and by cuttings.
Welcome back to all of ourmembers to the beginning of anothermembership year of the MinnesotaNative Plant Society. I am pleasedto report that we continue to grow inmembership and as an organization,thanks to an active board of directorsand the contributions of ourmembership.
What a fantastic summer it hasbeen to be a member of theMinnesota Native Plant Society! Ourmembers really stepped up andoffered some exceptionalopportunities to visit naturalcommunities throughout the state.On behalf of the society, we thankHannah Texler, Paul Bockenstedt(MNPS) and the Iowa Native PlantSociety, Karen Schik, Barb Delaney,and Ken Arndt for leading outings toMinnesota’s Scientific and NaturalAreas and destinations on theMinnesota-Iowa border. Thanks toDoug Mensing for his effectiveservice as field trip coordinator in2005, and to Ken Arndt and MaryBrown for serving as coordinators for2006.
Our board and officers are workingon some interesting projects to movethe society forward in 2006.Planning for the spring 2006symposium is underway. It ispointing to a location south of theTwin Cities, addressing the ecologyof vegetation in the Driftless Area ofsoutheastern Minnesota.
The board is working on designingand printing our very first NativePlant Society T-shirt in the comingmonths, which should serve toincrease our exposure within ourcommunities and social circles. ScottMilburn and Jason Husveth will beparticipating in workshops throughthe Science Museum of Minnesota(funded by the National ScienceFoundation) to document theSociety’s 23-year history and topreserve the many archival materialson loan from our many members. Weplan to incorporate much of thisarchival information into the
society’s new Web site(www.mnnps.org) and have thisinformation more readily availablefor the society’s 25th anniversary in2007. Shirley Mah Kooyman andLinda Huhn are investigating thepossibility of establishing a societyscholarship to benefit Minnesotastudents of botany, ecology, andrelated areas of study.
We always welcome the ideas ofour members, and we invite all of ourmembership to participate in themany programs, field trips, andspecial events we are planning for thecoming year. Please feel free to sendyour ideas and suggestions to me [email protected]. I lookforward to seeing you all at theNovember native seed exchange,winter field trips, and futuremeetings.Jason Husveth, president, MinnesotaNative Plant Society
Grey Cloud Dunes SNA2005 marked the first year of the
society’s stewardship role at GreyCloud Dunes SNA in Cottage Grove.In cooperation with the DNR, wehosted three work events and oneprairie hike. The prairie hike was thebest-attended event. Four hard-coresouls worked on honeysuckleremoval in February, about 15 peoplestacked brush and cut large trees withhand saws in March, and fourintrepid volunteers pulled spottedknapweed on a “slightly warm”evening in July. Many thanks to allmembers who helped. We hope toincrease our participation in 2006.
Master NaturalistsThe first Minnesota Master
Naturalist Program is underway.This volunteer program is similar tothe Minnesota Master GardenerProgram. Three locally taught 40-hour courses are: Big Woods, BigRivers, started this fall; Prairies andPotholes, starting in 2006;Northwoods, Great Lakes, starting in2007. Additional information is atwww.minnesotamasternaturalist.org
From the president
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Minnesota Native Plant Society
University of Minnesota
250 Biological Sciences Center
1445 Gortner Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108
Fall 2005