November updates for Time to Restore

Time to Restore

Greetings!

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 Wednesday, November 5th at 5:30pm MT / 6:30pm CT! We will provide a one-hour training including a brief overview of the project and a chance for Q&A about the project. This is a great opportunity to meet other observers collecting data on the Time to Restore project!

We've also added training dates through May. Our training calls in February and April will provide a full 1.5 hour training on how to participate in the project. The November, December, January, March, and May calls will be one hour and will include a brief overview on how to participate in Time to Restore, an update on the data collected so far, and tips on how to improve the quality of the data you collect as an observer.

Plant of the Month: Common sunflower, Helianthus annuus

Photo: Gina Lloyd

Each month, we feature one of the plants on the Time to Restore list. Common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is one of our eight regional priority species. The guidance for this species is also useful for swamp sunflower, Helianthus angustifolius, which is one of Louisiana's priority species.

This species has wide distribution across much of the United States. This widely branching plant can grow anywhere from 1-2 feet up to 10 feet tall. This plant has flowers clustered in inflorescences that consist of tightly packed disc flowers surrounded by bright, showy yellow ray petals. To know if the disc flowers are open, look for the reproductive structures, particularly the bright yellow pollen on the stamens. Disc flowers start opening on the outer edge of the disc, next to the ray petals, then progress in toward the center of the disc.

You may want to observe this species as a patch of plants. You can do this on your Observation Deck on the Add or Edit Plant page. If you have more than one plant or patch, consider monitoring 2-3 individuals at the same site to capture the variation between plants.

For the plant pictured below, you would report:

Flowers or flower buds - yes

Open flowers - yes

Fruits - no

Ripe fruits - no

Photo: James L. Reveal, via Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

As for the optional intensity questions, you are answering the question "How many flowers or flower buds are present?" Remember that for this species, you should count the number of inflorescences on the plant, or patch of plants.

In the patch below there are approximately 44 inflorescences (each circled in white). This is assuming that there is at least one disc flower that is still viable in each inflorescence. The number may be slightly higher or lower than this estimate, but since we only need to select a bin, we would report 11-100 flowers or flower buds. Optionally, you could put the actual number of flowers you counted in the comments for your observation.

Photo: Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller, via Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

As for the question "What percentage of flowers are open?", do your best to estimate the percentage of flowers where reproductive structures are visible. In this species, remember that disc florets start opening from the outside in, so you can assume that the center of the inflorescence will open last.

In the photo below, we are looking at a single inflorescence. Because the outside of the disc has visible open florets, with reproductive structures showing, we know that we can at least say "yes" to open flowers! You can always stop there and skip the intensity question.

To estimate the percent of flowers open, I would assume that the center of the disc is not yet open, as I don't see any stamens with pollen. I feel that more than half of the disc is open, but not more than 75%, so I would estimate 50-74% open flowers. You might feel that it's closer to 75-94%, which would also be acceptable. If you have many inflorescences, you can do this for a few of them and then average your estimate for your final answer.

Photo: Charmaine Richardson, via Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

Questions? Reach out to Erin@usanpn.org.

Data Collection Spotlight

USA-NPN Research Scientist Erin Zylstra has started to explore and visualize the data collected by Time to Restore participants. In the graphs below, we can see information on when open flowers were reported for four top observed species in Texas - American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), Eastern purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and Turk’s cap (Malvaviscus arboreus). The small circles indicate the proportion of reports with a "yes" for open flowers, with the size of the circle indicating the number of observations included in the data point. The black lines represent a model that is fit to show the pattern of change in the proportion over time, and the pink shading behind the graphs indicates the span of time with at least 25% (lighter shading) or at least 50% (darker shading) of "yes" reports for open flowers.

This visualization shows the kind of information we hope to convey as one of the outputs of the Time to Restore project- information that those working on supporting pollinators can use to see when nectar is available throughout the year, and make selections of plants that will support pollinators.

Additional Resources

Nature's Notebook Nest

Stay connected with fellow observers and Local Phenology Leaders at the Nature's Notebook Nest! These standing monthly meetings on the first Monday of the month at 12pm PT / 3pm ET are a great chance to ask your questions and get advice from fellow observers. Mark your calendars, next Nest is November 3rd! If you sign up for reminders we'll send you an email a few days before and then the morning of the call.

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, November 5th, 2025 @ 6:30 p.m. CT. 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? While we have scaled back on trainings at this point in the project, we are still providing virtual trainings for larger groups of 40 of more. 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 74 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, Fannin, 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, Travis
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, Nueces, Robertson, Walker, Waller, Washington, Wharton
Southwest Texas Counties	Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kinney, Medina, Uvalde
West Texas Counties	Bailey, Borden, Cochran, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Floyd, Garza, Hale, Hockley, Kent, King, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Motley, Scurry, Stonewall, Terry, Yoakum