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It’s a sunny Wednesday afternoon in mid-April, and my car bounces along a dirt road. I’m on my way to the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA), �����������ϳԹ�’s ecological field station, to join Professor of Biology Liz Queathem and the students in her section of Organisms, Evolution, and Ecology. Today, they’re surveying the oak and hickory forest on the property to identify the spring ephemeral wildflowers in bloom. �����������ϳԹ�ians have been coming to this forest to document spring ephemerals for over 100 years. For many, it has been and continues to be a favorite field exercise:

1:15 p.m. En route to CERA I see a red-tailed hawk swoop low over the road. The 252 students aren’t planning to birdwatch (not today, at least), but this is a nice nature encounter to kick off the afternoon.

1:21 I pull onto CERA’s winding gravel road and arrive at the Environmental Education Center (EEC). The prairie that surrounds me is just beginning to green up after a season of underground dormancy.

1:23 Two sprinter vans arrive at the field station and 23 �����������ϳԹ�ians in long pants and closed-toed shoes tumble out. I notice that I’m the only one wearing shorts … embarrassing.

1:25 In the EEC, students pore over maps of the property. They’ve been assigned specific plots in the forest to survey with their lab partners today.

1:29 “It’s a beautiful day to be out here,” Queathem announces to the room. “This time, we probably won’t have any tornadoes.” It seems like the bar for “good lab weather” might be quite low.

1:30 Mindy Sieck, biology technical assistant, runs the class through the protocol for the day. “Soil cores taken from these woods show that it’s been forested for about 1000 years,” she tells us. In a region as transformed by agriculture as Iowa, that’s a remarkably long-standing forest.

1:32 “117 years ago,” Sieck continues “Henry Conard started bringing students here to look at spring ephemerals. He and his students would take the train to Kellogg and then walk the rest of the way … more than three miles.” I’ll never complain about a commute again.

1:36 It’s time to head out to the forest. Students clamor to grab paint buckets filled with tape measurers, neon flags, and segments of PVC pipe.

1:37 “We want to wrap up by 3:05 so you have time to wash up for poison ivy,” Queathem announces, and I now understand why everyone wore pants.

1:40 A quarter mile or so of gravel road takes us to the edge of the forest. At the trailhead, students break into clusters around the botany experts who’ve joined us today.

1:42 “This is the gooseberry,” Stephanie Roush, �����������ϳԹ�’s greenhouse manager, points. “And ooh! Here’s a violet!” She shows us a small yellow flower.

1:43 “Oh? But it’s yellow ….” Eva Cuevas ’25 says what we’re all thinking.

1:44 Roush explains that not all violets (Viola odorata