Many of us garden to enjoy the foods or fruits of our labours, and to have beautiful blooms to admire that attract pollinators. But the Living Prairie Museum’s native plant plots are designed with one purpose in mind - to go to seed!
Begun several years ago, on a previously disturbed site along the northeastern edge of the Living Prairie Museum (LPM), the project was completed this fall. Thirty-seven species of native tall grass prairie wildflowers (or forbs) have been planted and many seeds have already been harvested.
As Nature Manitoba members likely know, only small remnants of the once vast tall grass prairie remain in Manitoba. What members may not realize is that local projects to re-establish native prairie species have been hampered by the lack of locally available native seed. Such projects have had to depend on limited supplies of seed coming from the United States. These seeds from outside our region may lack adaptations to local conditions and this can affect the long-term success of these restoration projects.
With the help of the Friends of the LPM, and funding from a number of organizations including Nature Manitoba, LPM has undertaken this project to establish and maintain a permanent seed nursery that will provide a reliable source of seed from local, genetically diverse native prairie wildflower species. This seed will be used for tall grass prairie restoration and naturalization projects throughout Winnipeg, while also conserving the genetics of local native prairie forb populations on remnant prairie sites in Winnipeg.
Nature Manitoba’s Native Habitat Grant provided funds for the third and final stage of the project involving construction of raised beds, where species that are either aggressive or more delicate have been planted, and the design of an interpretive sign. The sign has been installed beside the plots which are right along the Yellow Ribbon Greenway walking and biking trail, making it an ideal location to help trail users learn about the need for the seed.
The wild seeds used to establish the nursery plots have been responsibly harvested from as many individual plants, on as many individual local prairie remnant sites, as possible. These harvesting sites are all on City-owned land, with the required collecting permissions in place.
Nature Manitoba Board member Marika Olynyk, who recently took on the position of Curator at the Living Prairie Museum, and LPM staff member Josh Pearlman provided an interesting talk on the evolution of the project at our October 22nd Discovery Evening. If anyone is interested, they welcome volunteers willing to help with seed collection, cleaning and seedling transplanting.
You can find out more about volunteering at the Living Prairie Museum on the Friends of Living Prairie Museum website at:
http://www.friendsoflivingprairie.org/volunteer-employment
LPM Native Flower Seed Plots Interpretive Sign, photo by Marilyn Latta
Seed Plots in bloom in August, photo by Marilyn Latta
Newly planted raised seed beds, photo by Josh Pearlman
The seed plots are in the blue triangle at the upper right of aerial photo (Ness Ave. is along the bottom). Courtesy of Living Prairie Museum