I visited my field site in Northern Great Basin Experimental Range last week. Snow had all melted and the temperature during the day reached around 70 degrees. I knew it was spring when I saw sagebrush buttercups (Ranunculus glaberrimus) flowering on the hills on my way to the field station.

At my common garden experiment, I censused squirreltail (Elymus elymoides) and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) seedlings that I seeded last fall. Squirreltail seedlings were still very small and sparse, while cheatgass seedlings were taking off, growing thick and greenish red leaves.

I found double or triple the number of squirreltail seedlings in my plots last year around the same time, so I am worried that it’s another dry spring this year like in spring 2020. We’ll have to wait and see!

One good thing coming out of this project is that I am getting a lot better at ID’ing grass seedlings!