When complete, instruments on this 26-foot tower will monitor carbon dioxide, air pollutants, and a variety of meteorological variables, streaming the data to the web.

By Dave Carr

Director

Blandy Experimental Farm

An ambitious scientific platform designed to address ecological questions on a continental scale is beginning to take shape at Blandy Experimental Farm.

 The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is made possible by a new initiative at the National Science Foundation. When it is fully implemented, it will comprise 20 observatories (or "domains") distributed across the United States from New England forests to the volcanic slopes of Hawaii and from Puerto Rico to the Alaskan tundra. Each domain will include a "core" site and several "relocatable" sites where data will be collected. Some domains will include additional stream and lake sites as well. The domains were established to sample as much of North America's complex climate and geological variation as possible. Domain 2 will cover the mid-Atlantic region. Its core site will be located at the Smithsonian Conservation Biological Institute in Front Royal, and one of its relocatable sites will be at Blandy.

This winter NEON began construction of a 26-foot tower in a fallow field in Blandy's southwest corner. The tower will be outfitted

The soil and atmosphere are critical components of terrestrial ecosystems, but ecosystems cannot be understood without investigating their living components. This is where boots on the ground will replace automated instruments. NEON researchers will visit Blandy periodically to sample or census microorganisms, mosquitoes, beetles, mice, birds, and plants.  NEON will track animal and plant population dynamics, infectious diseases, and plant phenologies (e.g., when plants leaf out or begin to flower).

NEON is gathering all of this data to enable scientists to address some big questions. The NEON sites have been chosen strategically to include not only pristine, natural ecosystems from around the continent, but highly managed landscapes, agricultural sites, and urban sites as well. This design will allow researchers to better understand how land use changes affect ecosystem function, how invasions of exotic species alter biodiversity, how emerging wildlife diseases spread through the continent, and how all of these things are affected by a changing continental climate. The data collected by NEON instruments and researchers will immediately enter the public domain so that the project can tap into the skills, imaginations, and creativity of scientists from all over the world.

As a relocatable site, NEON's presence at Blandy is temporary. The University of Virginia and NEON have signed a five-year agreement.  After that time, the tower, boardwalk, and the entire NEON footprint here will disappear. During those five years, Blandy's participation in the network should enhance its visibility in the scientific community and advance its mission to increase understanding of the natural world.

An artist's rendering shows Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket.

Seeds from the State Arboretum of Virginia will blast into space in May en route to the International Space Station.

Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corporation is one of only two companies with NASA contracts to deliver supplies to the Space Station. The upcoming mission will demonstrate the company's ability to re-supply  the space station using Orbital's Antares medium-class rocket.

A representative from Orbital contacted Arboretum Assistant Curator Kim Strader about obtaining seeds from Virginia's state tree (and state flower), the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), to send along to commemorate Orbital's Virginia roots. The company's headquarters is just off Route 28 near Dulles Airport.

Companies often send odd things into space that are then given as gifts to supporters or as charity auction items, according to an Orbital spokesperson. In addition to the Dogwood seeds, copies of the Star-Spangled Banner and Virginia Commonwealth stock certificates will hitch a ride on the upcoming mission.

One of the world's most experienced space technology companies, Orbital has conducted 63 space launch missions since 1990, and has sent more than 123 satellites into orbit.

Orbital tested the first stage of the Antares rocket Feb. 22 at Wallops Island. The liquid-oxygen fueled rocket engine fired for 29 seconds, proving it could successfully carry the loaded rocket into space.

Spring Public Programs: 

Tours, Trilliums, and Tomatoes

By Steve Carroll

Director of Public Programs

As we turn the corner toward spring, have a look at our upcoming programs and add us to your calendar. Several programs will take us out 

onto the property to appreciate Blandy's collections and landscape.

First up is a St. Patrick's Day tour to show that the real green is here at the Arboretum. By March 17 we can expect a variety of wildflowers and flowering trees and shrubs announcing the arrival of spring.

Gardeners are an optimistic bunch, especially when it comes to favorites like tomatoes. On March 26, we'll explore the world of tomatoes, from history and lore, to weird and wonderful ways to grow, to favorite varieties and tricks of the trade. Come share your secrets!

As the season warms, we'll head out on foot: through a sea of trilliums at the Thompson Wildlife Management Area; to our Herb Garden and beyond with Doug Bartley in a program on medicinal and spiritual uses of herbs; and in guided walks that emphasize silent walking and personal reflection, plus the first of the year's popular full moon walks.

In a more intensive study of plants, Marion Lobstein will teach a four-part class on plant identification based on the newly published Flora of Virginia. This 14-hour class is already full as we go to press.

And something new: On April 20, we'll offer two Arboretum tours, an English-language tour in the morning and a Spanish-language tour in the afternoon. Blandy volunteer and docent, Bob Vazques, will lead the afternoon tour.

For more information or to register for any of these programs, please call 540-837-1758 Ext. 224.

Spring will be busy at Blandy. In addition to a full schedule of public programs, school programs, and visits from garden clubs and others, we are also hosting classes for Master Naturalists, Master Gardeners, and Beekeepers, and our Community Garden participants will soon arrive armed with tillers, garden tools, and seeds.

See you on the grounds!

By T'ai Roulston

Curator

The red maple is the most prominent and often first of our native trees to bloom in spring. When it is still cold generally but warm for a day, still bare, brown and threatening snow next week, you see it: a red tree on the roadside ready to bloom. It seems crazy, like a teenager taking a dare, but there it is, every year, unchastened by its last reproof. Unless you look closely, you won't know when it is actually flowering. Its red buds are followed by red flowers followed by red fruits so it looks the same from a passing car window for a month or two. But if you stop and look closely, you might see the flowers. And if you look closely at the flowers, many flowers, on different plants, you likely would be confused, botanically speaking.

In general, plants have flowers that are either pollinated by wind or animals. In general, flowers are either male, female, or both, depending on the species. The red maple, which flowers at a time when the weather may be glorious or miserable, when insects are flying hungry or hunkered down in a crevice or yet to emerge for the year, doesn't like to commit to anything when it comes to sex. First, it looks like it is pollinated by wind. Its flowers are reduced with exposed anthers putting pollen on a passing breeze, like most wind pollinated trees. It will set fruit in the absence of pollinators, so it seems just another wind-pollinated tree. And yet, on a warm day, a tree can be abuzz with bees, both honey bees replenishing their stores and solitary bees provisioning their first nests. It is the kind of insect clamor usually reserved for  plants that depend on insects for pollination. The red maple, in fact, not only produces pollen but also floral nectar, an unnecessary metabolic expense for plants that rely only on wind for reproduction. So it seems the red maple walks the line between the worlds of wind and bees, counting on neither, benefiting from both.

That is interesting enough, but the gender of red maple is the most curious thing. It can be just about every possibility one can imagine. It can have separate male and female flowers on the same plant, bisexual flowers on the same plant, male and bisexual flowers on the same plant, only male flowers (= male plants) or only female flowers (= female plants). 

Where studied over time (by Richard Primack, in Massachusetts), most male and female plants stay male and female across years, but some shift and start producing flowers of the other sex. So, in sum, it can be partially or totally either sex or both in various configurations and change over time. Or not. Selection, it seems, has not been very clear in the message it has given the red maple. Go forth. Multiply. Do whatever you want. It all works fine, apparently. 

The jack-in-the-pulpit can also change sex across years, but it at least does it in relation to the resources it has stored, which appears not to be the case in red maple. As yet, all this variation is unexplained. So as you see the roadsides and woodlands turn red this year, be cheered both that spring is coming and that even the most prominent things you see can harbor plenty of mysteries.