– This story and photos by Shannon Kingsley first appeared the the RIWPS publication WildfloraRI, Winter 2022

A calm, September Sunday afternoon finds me waist-deep in the leech-filled waters of the Wood River, searching for the inconspicuous Allegheny monkey- flower (Mimulus ringens). Among Joe-Pyes (Eutrochium spp.) and some late-blooming cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), the monkey-flower has shed its light purple flowers for lime-green seed pods. Slicing through a pod with a small pocket knife, I find the tiny rust-colored seeds packed into the walls of the carpel, like a sugar cone jammed full of ice cream. These teeny lives hold such potential, such life bursting at each pod’s green seams.

Using a tallying app on my phone, I begin to count every individual that I see, wading along the shore and recording each one through a simple click. As I observe each plant, I make mental notes: no visible insect damage, pods still green. Once I tally fifty plants on the app — the minimum population size for sustainable collecting — I record my observations in my field notebook. I also collect seeds of the cardinal flowers, their pods brown and dry, held upright on their stems, the opening of the pod sheltered by the wilted calyx. Sporting its red flowers like funky party hats, this colorful species is an important nectar source for hummingbirds, which in turn, spread its pollen to neighboring flowers.

Monkey-flower and cardinal flower serve as crowning examples of the mission of the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society’s ReSeeding Rhode Island initiative: to increase both native plant populations and their pollinators across the state. While monkey-flower serves as a host plant for native butterfly species, including Baltimore Checkerspots and the Common Buckeye, cardinal flower attracts hummingbirds, bees, and moths.

The project began with a list of approximately thirty-two species, many of them known for both attracting pollinators and tolerating sunny, dry conditions. Some exceptions include species that prefer wetter conditions, such as the monkey-flower and cardinal flower, and several grass species that serve more of an ecological role, such as improving soil stability and providing bird and insect habitats. Although RIWPS has a target list of ‘most-wanted’ species, our species list is mutable.

Bushy clover with little bluestem, photo Shanon Kingsley

Our collections ultimately depend on the availability of these seeds in the wild and the sustainability of the target populations. As the project unfolds, I find myself shuttling from the blistering fields of Carter Preserve in Charlestown, to the squishy water’s edge of Browning Mill Pond in Arcadia; I have searched along the wooded paths of Cumberland Land Trust, and explored the varied topographies of private landowner property.

With each new site, I approach my work with a similar mentality: I am a citizen of this natural space, and this work requires an intentional, reciprocal relationship to the land and its inhabitants. To this end, I follow the Seeds of Success (SOS) protocol, a publicly accessible document produced by the Bureau of Land Management that outlines the responsibilities of collecting wild seeds. Some of these regulations include collecting plants from populations with more than fifty individuals and collecting no more than twenty percent of the population’s seeds on any given day. Additionally, I must return to the same population of a specific species to collect seeds two or three times per season in order to maximize genetic diversity within the collected population. I also evaluate the health of the population throughout the season to monitor how insect damage or negative environmental conditions, such as extreme drought or heat, affect seed production.

Additionally, it is important we remember and give honor to the indigenous people who first stewarded this land upon which RIWPS now collects seeds. These tribes include the Narragansetts, the Niantics, the Pequots and the Pokanokets. I spend considerable time researching public lands and networking with local environmental stewards who know the histories of public lands across Rhode Island. I determine wild status through learning about the history of different lands from professionals within the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM), local stewards of various land trusts, and private landowners. On numerous occasions, I have been disappointed to learn that a promising population I found was in fact seeded for restoration purposes. Although it is amazing that much of Rhode Island’s public lands have been restored and seeded to improve ecosystem health and to aid wildlife, these sites pose a challenge for finding “truly” wild populations.

For each site where I find a healthy, sizable population from which to collect seeds, I gain official written or verbal permission from the managers of the site and confirm its wild status. I collect seeds from sites managed by various organizations within Rhode Island, including RIDEM, The Nature Conservancy, Norman Bird Sanctuary, Warren Land Conservation Trust, and Westerly Land Trust. There is also a rigorous documentation aspect of the project which aligns with the project’s goal of utilizing a data-driven approach to this work.

This documentation starts in the field with comprehensive field notes and systematic collections of both seed and voucher specimens. In alignment with SOS Protocols, I collect one to two voucher specimens per species at the site of seed collection for documentation and herbaria accession purposes. I also record exact GPS coordinates for each voucher and seed collection. With this coordinate data, I create an interactive map through Rstudio, software that accommodates R computer programming for data science and visual scientific communication. The continual mapping of sites and species across the state helps visualize the spread of our collections, especially as we aim to collect from all three subregions of Ecoregion 59.

As of late summer, I am seed- deep in collections. I have collected approximately 20 species of seeds, including notable pollinator plants such as common yarrow (Achillea millefolium), licorice-scented goldenrod (Solidago odora), and narrow-leaved mountain mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium). As autumn unfolds, I plan to collect several late-seeding species, including wavy-leaved aster (Symphyotrichum undulatum), bushy bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus), and blue-stemmed goldenrod (Solidago caesia).

Seed cleaning is another important step in this project, and this process varies depending on the cleaning requirements for each species. For some species, such as bladder-pod lobelia (Lobelia inflata), it is as simple as splitting the seed pod and emptying the seeds into a small paper bag for storage. For others, it requires the use of screens and sifters to separate the seed from its pappus, or the feathery tuft attached to the seed, as in the case of goldenrod (Solidago) species.

From the barely perceptible seeds of blue vervain (Verbena hastata) to the trigger-spring seed explosions of wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), the silky parachutes of swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and velvety tear drops of round-headed bush clover (Lespedeza capitata), it is a transformative experience to be responsible for the collection of such varied and intricate life forces. Especially during the uncertainty of the global climate crisis, it is more imperative than ever to remember the importance of aiding in the proliferation of native plants and the pollinators that depend on them.