June updates for Time to Restore

Time to Restore

Hello USA-NPN,

Here is your monthly update for those participating in the Time to Restore project in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. If you know others who may be interested in this newsletter, please send it their way! If you were forwarded this message, you can sign up to get on our list here.

Upcoming virtual trainings

Join us for a virtual training June 4th!

We are now hosting monthly virtual training calls. These calls will be a chance to review how to make observations in Nature's Notebook as well as ask your specific questions. The next call will be Wednesday, June 4th at 5:30pm MT / 6:30pm CT and will be a general check-in and a chance for you to ask us any questions you have about the project or how to observe phenology in Nature's Notebook.

We'll host calls on the first Wednesday of the month through the summer. The July call will provide an orientation to the project and how to participate. The June, August, and September calls will be more of a general check-in with an opportunity for you to ask questions.

Plant of the Month: Green antelopehorn, Asclepias viridis

Photo: Colton Meinecke via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC

Each month, we feature one of the plants on the Time to Restore list. Green antelopehorn (Asclepias viridis), also known as spider milkweed and green milkweed, is one of our eight regional priority species. This species is found in many Central and Eastern states.

Remember that plants have many common names, and the common name in Nature's Notebook may not be the one you are used to! Use the scientific name when searching for a plant you want to add to Nature's Notebook to make sure you find the correct species.

Asclepias viridis has flowers that are mostly white or greenish white with purple at the center. Each plant typically only has one flower head, an umbel. Milkweeds are the host plant for monarch butterflies, which only lay their eggs on milkweeds. Milkweed also serve as a host for several other species of butterflies and moths, and many other species drink its nectar.

You can observe this species as a single plant in Nature's Notebook, or, if you have multiple plants growing together that are difficult to distinguish from one another, register the plant as a patch and make your observation considering the patch as a whole. If you have more than one plant or patch, consider monitoring 2-3 individuals at the same site to capture the variation between plants.

Since we also featured a milkweed last month, this month we focus on how to report the fruits of this (and other) milkweeds. The phenophase definitions, available on the mobile app and on the paper datasheets, are very helpful in assessing fruits.

Here is the definition for fruits:

One or more fruits are visible on the plant. For Asclepias viridis, the fruit is large and pod-like and changes from green to tan or brown and splits open to expose seeds with fluff. Do not include empty fruits that have already dropped all of their seeds.

For the plant pictured below, you would report:

Flowers or flower buds - no

Open flowers - no

Fruits - yes

Ripe fruits - yes

Photo: Jed Aplaca via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC

As for the optional intensity questions, you are answering the question "How many fruits are present?" Remember that fruits (the large pods for this and other milkweed species) are different from seeds. For Asclepias viridis, you are counting the number of pods that are both unripe and ripe. In the photo below, you would pick the bin "Less than 3" as there are two fruits (pods) visible.

Also a reminder that when you say "yes" for ripe fruits, always also say "yes" for fruits! Even though the image below has two fruits that are both ripe, you would report "yes" for both fruits and ripe fruits.

Photo: Kala Murphy King via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC-ND

As for the question "What percentage of all fruits (unripe plus ripe) on the plant are ripe?", for the above photo you would select the bin 95% or more, as both of the two fruits (pods) are ripe.

Questions? Reach out to Erin@usanpn.org.

Additional resources

Time to Restore April Quarterly Call: Data Check In

During the April Time to Restore Quarterly Call we did a deep dive into the data that you all have collected so far. We talked about what is going well, and issues with the data, and how to fix those issues.

Watch the recording

Monthly Murmuration - Wednesday, June 18th at 11am PT

Monthly Murmurations are webinars that are open to all nature's Notebook observers and Local Phenology Leaders! USA-NPN Director Theresa Crimmins will share results from some recent papers that used Nature's Notebook data. Come find out what scientists are learning from your data!

Training options in your state

Participants in all states are invited to join us for monthly training series on the first Wednesday of the month. The next training will be Wednesday, June 4th, 2025 @ 6:30 p.m. CT and will provide an orientation to the Time to Restore project. Register here.

Louisiana

Interested in organizing a training for your group in Louisiana? Reach out to Gina Lloyd to schedule.

New Mexico

Interested in organizing a training for your group in New Mexico? Reach out to Kim Eichhorst to schedule.

Oklahoma

Interested in organizing a training for your group in Oklahoma? Reach out to Jane Breckinridge to schedule.

Texas

Interested in organizing a training for your group in Texas? Reach out to David Gwin to schedule.

The table below shows the Texas counties that are represented by Master Naturalist and NPSOT chapters that have already approved the project. We are now up to 73 counties! Let us know if you are already planning on participating in the project but your county is not represented below!

North Texas Counties	Dallas, Denton, Collin, Cooke, Hunt, Kaufman, Montague, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Parker, Wise
Central Texas Counties	Bell, Caldwell, Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Comanche, Erath, Hamilton, Hays, Lampasas, Llano, Milam, Palo Pinto
East Texas Counties	Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity, Tyler
Southeast Texas Counties	Austin, Brazoria, Brazos, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Lee, Leon, Madison, Montgomery, Robertson, Walker, Waller, Washington, Wharton
Southwest Texas Counties	Uvalde, Medina, Kinney, Bexar
West Texas Counties	Bailey, Borden, Cochran, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Floyd, Garza, Hale, Hockley, Kent, King, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Motley, Scurry, Stonewall, Terry, Yoakum