Katherine Brewer knows grasses, and restoring Prairie Dropseed in Minnesota prairies is her goal. In July she shared her knowledge with an attentive Lake Minnetonka Garden Club Membership audience highlighting her research for her masters degree from the University of Minnesota where she was honored this year with the graduate Horticultural Science award.
Prairie Dropseed, or Sporobolus heterolepsis, is an important native grass, ornamental and beautiful with graceful, arching leaves and wispy mop tops that flower in late summer, becoming three feet in height. It is commonly used and seen in landscape plantings. As an ecologically beneficial native prairie grass it is a crucial source of food and shelter for bees, songbirds, and at least five species of native butterflies, including the skipper and skipperling. Habitat loss has contributed to a decline in Prairie Dropseed numbers. Because it is slow to germinate when seedlings are young they are vulnerable to competition with other grasses, so establishment is challenging. Her project involved planting thousands of landscape plugs of the grass on site at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. This extensive work was supported by the Hope Goddard Iselin Fellowship in Public Horticulture through the GCA granted to Katherine in 2021.
Katherine Brewer interned at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania and at Polly Hill Arboretum in Massachusetts. Her developing interest in plant conservation, curation, and public education led her to the University of Minnesota for a graduate degree. She worked with Dr. Mary Meyer, professor emeritus and extension horticulturalist who is also the curator of the ornamental grass collection at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. With growing interest and awareness it is hoped that there will be an increase in the establishment and survival of Prairie Dropseed in restored prairies.
We do know that the grass will always be greener wherever Katherine decides to go!
Harriett Chute