September 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 September 3rd!

We are now hosting monthly virtual training calls. The next call will be Wednesday, September 3rd at 5:30pm MT / 6:30pm CT and will provide a one-hour training including a brief overview of the project, an update on data collection, 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!

Plant of the Month: Wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa

Photo: Dulcey Lima, Morton Arboretum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Each month, we feature one of the plants on the Time to Restore list. Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), also known as beebalm and many other common names, is one of our regional priority species. Fistulosa means "tubular", reflecting the shape of both flowers and the spent flower base that holds the tiny seeds. This species is found throughout much of the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains and in southern Canada.

Wild bergamot blooms throughout the spring and summer. The flowers occur in inflorescences that look like pompoms, about 2-4 inches across.

You can observe this species as a single plant in Nature's Notebook. Or, if you have trouble distinguishing individuals you can observe it as a patch of several plants. 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: Gina Lloyd, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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 55 inflorescences (each circled in white), so you 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: Dulcey Lima, Morton Arboretum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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 the photo below, you can see that the flower head has dried flowers at the very top of the inflorescence, open flowers in a ring around the top, then flower buds below. Since this is consistent around the inflorescence, you can look at a small part of the inflorescence to estimate the percentage open. In the white rectangle below, I count 2 of 18 flower structures are open, which would put the estimate into the bin of 5-25% flowers open. If you have many inflorescences, do this for a few of them and then average your estimate for your final answer.

Photo: Dulcey Lima, Morton Arboretum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

It can be tricky to answer the questions about Fruits and Ripe fruits for many of our Time to Restore species. Remember to always first read the phenophase definitions. For wild bergamot, the species-specific definition for fruits is "For Monarda spp., the fruit is a nutlet, tightly clustered with several other nutlets and enclosed in a spent flower base (calyx), with many such spent flower bases clustered together. The spent flower base changes from green to tan or brownish. Do not include flower bases that have already dropped all of their nutlets."

In the photo below, you can see the cluster of spent flower bases. In a photo it is impossible to know if there are any tiny nutlets inside. When you are making your observation, you may need to tip the spent flower base structure over to see if any nutlets fall out.

As always, if any phenophase or intensity question is too difficult, you are welcome to skip the question entirely! Please only answer the questions that you feel confident in answering.

Photo: © banaszm via iNaturalist, CC BY-NC 4.0

Questions? Reach out to Erin@usanpn.org.

Data Collection Spotlight

We're excited to welcome the New Branch Ranch Foundation, a nonprofit horse rescue, to our network of Louisiana Local Phenology Programs! The ranch encompasses 114 acres of bottomland hardwood forest, prairie, and agricultural land along the bank of the Mississippi River. Management goals include invasive species eradication and reintroduction of native plants to improve drainage and restore ecosystem function.

Photo: Gina Lloyd

Additional Resources

Nature's Notebook Nest

Stay connected with fellow observers and Local Phenology Leaders this summer 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 September 8th! 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, September 3rd, 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, Robertson, Walker, Waller, Washington, Wharton
Southwest Texas Counties	Bexar, Comal, 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