jnross4's Identifications

Iris lacustris survey on The Gilson Creek I Property. This survey is JUST for this property and not the adjoining private land easement.

Occurrences within the property are not connected well. Some occurrences are very far from other occurrences and extremely small. These occurrences are in areas with heavy canopy cover and not a lot (if any) Iris are in bloom (images 3 and 4).

The more robust occurrences are close to private land that also boasts an impressive population.

Biggest threats to the Gilson Creek I population are canopy cover. Some prickly ash are also growing within multiple occurrences.

One pollinator observed visiting multiple open flowers (image 2)

Iris lacustris survey on the Gilson Creek II Preserve.

Iris continue to do well. Hundreds of seedlings found in clumps of 15-20 (image 3). 3 different bee pollinators observed visiting many open flowers during observation. Some new tree blow-downs, which have opened the canopy, but have fallen right on the Iris.

Roadside occurrences are doing alright. Some are right along where people park to gain access to the land.

Contact was made with a neighbor to the NW. They did not know about the Iris, but are enthusiastic to check their property to see if any Iris are around. Historically there were Iris near/on their property.

18 stems - 3 mature, 11 sapling to 5" diameter trees, 4 small shoots under 6' tall.
No seed pods found. Lots of epicormic branching on the small trees. I would assume this is caused by stress, as this colony is located in a creek bed in saturated soil, and appears to experience periodic flooding.

No other coffeetrees observed in the area, and given the small extent of the population and no fruit present, I would infer these trees are part of a clonal sucker colony.

Population along the Wisconsin River below the Dells dam. One population in a thin line 1 foot up a sandstone cliff (at flood level). Another population 8' up the cliff in a thin line. Both populations extend for approximately 100'. Rough approximate population of 60 individual plants. Sandstone cliff is south, south-east facing.

Far fewer in bloom and fruit as compared with 2022 when it was the growing season after a Rx burn. Time restraint on looking for the harder to find vegetative only clumps so total overall number lower this year.

After the 2022 growing season, woody brush had been cleared from the western extent of the previously known population area and towards the west. This year, three (3) clumps were seen ~9 m farther to the west where previously shaded.

Effort: 2.5 hours including round trip walk from/to main access point.

I was exploring the area and found this population. I didn't see a population shown here on the rare plant finder site, so I figured I should do a survey. There were about 8-10 individuals over 4" dbh, and the rest were small saplings (or possibly root suckers). Many of the small trees had multiple stems coming from a shared base, perhaps due to deer browse? I counted these multistem trees as one individual as long as they had a shared base. 2 of the mature trees were missing large patches of bark, and one appeared dead. I did not see seed pods in the canopies of any of the mature trees.