Orland Glassland Volunteers Host 2 Seed-Cleaning Events

ORLAND PARK, IL — A group of volunteers who works to maintain healthy habitats at the Orland Grassland will gather twice in the next two weeks to clean native wildflower and grass seeds that were harvested this fall.

Some of the harvested wildflower species include wood betony, compass plant, gray-headed coneflower, and pale purple coneflower, group members said. Native grasses include side oats grama and prairie dropseed among other species of seeds that were harvested. Forming a vibrant, natural landscape, the seeds build a habitat structure that is vital to living things of the highest conservation value.

Volunteers from the group will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and again on Nov. 16 to clean the seeds that were harvested. The group will gather at the Orland Park Civic Center, which is located at 14750 South Ravinia. The event will run until 9:30 p.m.

Organizers told Patch that since the end of September, the Orland Grassland Volunteers have been collecting seeds and seed heads from special native plants growing at Orland Grassland. When collected, they are stored in grain bags, sealed, with the plant species noted on the bag.

At the two upcoming events, volunteers will be separating the seed from the seed heads, and cleaning away the chaff to find the seeds. Members of the group use various methods including cleaning seeds with bare hands (with gloves), using screens, hand pruners, mortars and pestles, and flat rocks as hammers.

Some of the seeds are easy to separate from their dried-out flowers because they are fairly large, others like pale purple coneflower, require hand pruners to pull the seed from the prickly seed head, group members said. Seeds from wood betony are smaller than poppy seeds. The whole plant needs to be scraped against a screen to release the seeds.

Once the seeds are cleaned, they are returned to the labeled grain bag. Seeds are then broken down by habitat type and mixed. This ensures the right species seed is put in the right habitat. Volunteers may have, depending on what we've collected, seeds destined for five or six different habitats, the group said.

The seed mixes are ready for spreading by hand by volunteers, by habitat, across Orland Grassland. The hand seeding is done right before Thanksgiving. This gives the seeds a chance to filter through the vegetation, be covered with a warm blanket of snow for the winter, and be ready to sprout in the spring

Seed collecting, seed cleaning, seed mixing, and hand seeding are all part of the process of restoring healthy habitats at Orland Grassland. This process takes place across other forest preserves in Cook County in the fall. The Orland Park group has been celebrating this cycle every year for many years.

Those seeking more information can visit the group’s website or Facebook page. More information can also be received by contacting Pat Hayes at (708) 220-9596 or by email at ptihys@comcast.net.