Written By: Ru Xue Jiang
Edited By: Maggie Muzante
The AYLUS Dix Hills Branch works with the Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) and Saturday Stewardship to continue our objective of disseminating proper native plant species while removing invasive ones. Volunteers sifted through the harvest (seed cleaning), vacuumed the station between different plant species to prevent contamination and mixing of seeds, and cleaned up.
Volunteers worked with the plant species Broomsedge (Andropogon virginicus), Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), as well as Grey Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis) and Early Goldenrod (Solidago juncea). Volunteers first placed sifting grids (seed cleaning screens) over plastic garbage cans with a cloth bag, then placed the plant species they were working with on top. Using wooden blocks and rubbing them against the plant, volunteers were able to separate seeds from the plant.
These seeds will be used to bank, grow, and provide community members with native plant species. Banking, meaning storage, will be at the scientific facility Greenbelt Native Plant Center in Staten Island in specific conditions to preserve the native seeds for future generations. This protects contemporary genetic traits and maintains them over time despite reproduction. Some of the other seeds that will be set aside will be used by the Stewardship to plant. Native plant seeds are grown at LINPI, and are available for the Stewardship and others to plant. This will allow us to continue doing preventative measures against invasive species next year. With the remaining seeds, community members who are working on their own projects in their backyards to remove invasive species can get native species to plant in their backyard instead. The AYLUS Dix Hills Branch working with the Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) and Saturday Stewardship helps reduce the impact of invasive species at a local level, and AYLUS Dix Hills will work to further this initiative in the future.
Volunteers: Ru Xue Jiang (3 hours), Sara Kong (2 hours and 30 minutes), Christina Mink (2 hours and 30 minutes), and Gurvani Singh (2 hours and 30 minutes), and Ming Chen (2 hours and 30 minutes).
