Jeff Nelson, Author at Kentucky Native Plant Society

From the Lady Slipper Archives: Kentucky’s Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.)

The Lady Slipper newsletter of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. This one, about Kentucky’s most widespread milkweed species, Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), first appeared in the fall of 2011, Vol. 26, No. 3. If you would like to see other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 34, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2019 (after which we moved to this blog format) can be found.

Kentucky’s Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.)
By David Taylor, US Forest Service

Common milkweed is a perennial forb that spreads by means of rhizomes and seed. It is one of about 115 species that occur in the Americas. Most species are tropical or arid land species. Plants may occur as a few individuals, but once established, form small to large colonies. Individual plants range from 1 to 2 m (~ 3 to 6 ft) tall. Leaves are elliptic to ovate to oblong and somewhat thick. Mature leaves are 15-20 cm (6-8 in) long and 5 to 9 cm (~ 2 to 3.6 in) wide, with a prominent midvein. The underside of the leaf is frequently finely pubescent. The stem is stout, usually simple, and green to black (see below) in color. When broken, the leaves, as well as stem and fruit, exude milky latex. Flowers are purplish to rosy pink to mostly white or even greenish and about 2 cm (0.75 in) long and 1 cm (0.4 in) wide. They occur in semi-spherical umbels (umbrella-like clusters) in the upper leaf axils. Flowers are somewhat complex in their structure, with structures not found in the average flower. The flowers are strongly and sweetly scented.

The fruits (pods), known as follicles, are formed from the union of multiple flowers. They are green, covered in soft spiky projections and are finely pubescent. When the seeds are mature, the follicle splits exposing the seeds. Each seed is equipped with a coma, a soft group of hairs. As the newly exposed seeds dry, the hairs of the coma expand allowing the seed to catch a ride on the wind. When broken, the leaves, as well as stem and fruit, exude milky latex.

Common milkweed is a widespread and somewhat weedy species. It is known from most of the eastern U.S and the eastern-most prairie states as well as southern Canada from New Brunswick to Saskatchewan. It is frequently found in fence rows, on roadsides, in fields, and in prairies and pastures. Given the opportunity, it will establish in gardens and even thin lawns. It is tolerant of light shade, but generally is a full sun species.

The genus name, Asclepias, commemorates Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine. Some of the species have a history of medicinal use including common milkweed (wart removal and lung diseases) and butterfly weed (aka pleurisy root— pleurisy and other lung disease). The specific epithet, syriaca, means ‘of Syria’ and is a misnomer: Linnaeus thought the species was native to Syria. This species is some times eaten as a salad herb, requiring multiple boilings of the young shoots before it is palatable. The reason for the boiling is to rid the shoots of various cardiac glucosides and other bitter principles. Milk weeds contain various levels of these compounds which render the plants toxic to most insects and animals. For some insects, the cardiac glucosides become a defense. They can store them in their tissue which renders them inedible or toxic to other animals. Monarch butterflies use this defense and birds leave them and the caterpillars alone. What the birds do not know is that northern monarchs feeding on common milkweed accumulate relatively little of the toxic compounds and probably would be edible. The more southern butterflies accumulate large amounts of the compounds from other species and are in fact toxic.

The stems contain a bast (inner ‘bark’) fiber used by Native Americans to produce twine and rope. The concentration and quality of the fiber make it potentially useful as a commercial fiber plant. Fiber quality is that of flax.

Common milkweed is an important pollinator and food plant for a large number of insects (more than 450 documented). It could be said that common milkweed is Nature’s mega food market for insects. Numerous butterflies, flies, bees, wasps, and beetles feed on the nectar and pollen produced by the flowers. Even hummingbirds will try, apparently unsuccessfully, to extract nectar. Aphids, especially the yellow-orange oleander or milkweed aphids (Aphis nerii), are commonly found on milkweeds including common milkweed. Large infestations of aphids can lead to formation of sooty mold on the plants which can turn the stems and leaves from green to gray to black. Two true bugs, the large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) and the small milkweed bug (Lygaeus kalmia) feed on the seeds, but the large milkweed bug is more often encountered. Large populations of either species can reduce the seed production potential of a colony of common milkweed by as much as 80-90%. The colorful (red with black dots) red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetraophthalmus) feeds on the leaves. The milkweed leaf beetle (Labidomera clivicollis), another orange-red and black beetle may feed on common milkweed but has a preference for swamp milkweed (A. incarnata). At least two caterpillars, the milkweed tussock caterpillar (Euchaetes egle) and the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) feed on this plant. The red (or orange-red) and black coloration of most of these insects is known as aposematic coloration; that is, the colors advertise the fact that the organism is not good to eat. Other palatable species mimic the toxic species and gain some protection as a result. A well known example is the viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) which mimics the monarch .

For monarchs, common milkweed is among the most important food plants. It is the primary food plant for northern U.S. and southern Canada monarchs and is a major food plant for monarchs in the central and southern U.S. Monarchs migrating from the mountains of Mexico lay eggs on milkweed species in northern Mexico and the southern U.S. The butterflies that result from these eggs move further north in stages, with a change in species of milkweeds utilized as they move north. Common milkweed is the usual northern species. Monarchs can be helped by encouraging existing common patches of common milkweed and planting new ones. The plant grows readily from seed and spreads quickly by deep rhizomes. Because common milkweed can be weedy and difficult to remove, care should be used to establish the plant only in places where spread can be tolerated.

From the Lady Slipper Archives: Kentucky’s ‘Tropical’ Fruit, the Pawpaw

The Lady Slipper newsletter of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. This one, about the United States’ largest native fruit, the Pawpaw, Asimina triloba, first appeared in the fall of 2005, Vol. 20, No. 3. If you would like to see other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 34, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2019 (after which we moved to this blog format) can be found.

Kentucky’s ‘Tropical’ Fruit, the Papaw

by John Thieret, NKU

**^{Photo: Ellwood J.Carr, from the collection of the Pine Mountain Settlement School}**

A visit to a fruit/ vegetable market in the tropics is a great experience. All sorts of plant products that we in the temperate zones do not recognize are there. Among these are fruits of the Annonaceae, the custard-apple family, including the bullock’s-heart, cherimoya, guanabana, sweetsop, and soursop. These are unknown to most people in our part of the world, but we do have a member of the Annonaceae that does NOT grow in the tropics, our papaw, Asimina triloba. This is a shrub or small tree, which, as I have seen it, never exceeds perhaps 20 feet in height and 6 inches in trunk diameter, although there are reports of individuals 50 feet tall and with a trunk 2 feet in diameter, truly a mega-papaw.

A common enough plant, the papaw thrives in rich woods over much of eastern U.S. from northern Florida to far eastern Texas, then north to New York, far southern Ontario, Michigan, Iowa, and southeastern Nebraska. It grows throughout Kentucky, almost certainly in every county.

Although some papaw enthusiasts wax ecstatic over the fruits, papaws are not everyone’s favorite. This divergence in appreciation stems from, first, natural differences in fruits from different trees and, second, differences in people’s taste buds. I have found fruits from some trees not worth the effort of trying to get them down from the branches. But other trees can produce fruits that I’d describe as almost excellent. The best papaws I ever tasted were in southern Illinois on a rather cool, almost frosty fall morning. Yes, quite worthwhile. The Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley described, in hoosier dialect, the gustatory experience:

And sich pop-paws! Lumps a’ raw
Gold and green,—jes’ oozy th’ough
With ripe yaller—like you’ve saw
Custard-pie with no crust to.

Another assessment of the taste, by an Indiana lad, is included in Euell Gibbons’ book Stalking the Wild Asparagus: “They taste like mixed bananers and pears, and feel like sweet pertaters in your mouth.” I’ll second that, at least for a good papaw.

Long before Europeans began their assault on the North American continent, the indigenous peoples, along with various animals—possums, raccoons, squirrels, and skunks—sought the fruit. The first Europeans to see it—some 450 years ago—were De Soto and his entourage. They wrote of it, mentioning its “very good smell and excellent taste.” About 200 years later the plant was introduced into cultivation by Europeans who brought seeds to England. Then in 1754 the first illustration of the papaw appeared in Catesby’s Natural History of Carolinas (see right). Lewis and Clark, in the early 19th century, found the fruits to be welcome additions to a meagre diet. To this day, the fruits are collected and used by country people and by city dwellers who like to eat their way through the landscape.

As for ways to use the fruits, first and foremost they can be eaten out of hand. As they ripen, they change from green to brown or nearly black, then looking not especially appetizing (recalling ripe plantains). The fruit pulp, creamy and sweet, contains several large, flattened, brown seeds. One of my friends made a necklace for his wife from the seeds. Better, I guess, than one made from finger bones.

Enthusiasts use the fruit for pies, puddings, marmalade, bread, beer, and brandy. I’ve tasted papaw bread and found it OK. Barely. I once tried to make papaw bread—I’ll say no more about that dismal experience. (The persimmon bread I attempted was no better.)

On a few occasions I have seen the plant grown as an ornamental. With its large, somewhat drooping leaves, it is rather attractive. The maroon flowers, which bloom in spring when the leaves are still young and covered with rusty down, are not all that conspicuous, and the fruits—well, my experience has been that papaw plants in cultivation as lawn specimens just do not make many fruits. As a matter of a fact, I have always noted that, even in the wild, the fruits are not abundantly produced. Maybe I just was not at the right place at the right time. The plants seem to require cross pollination, which is a disadvantage to those who would use them as ornamentals and, at the same time, would like some fruits.

If you have never tried one of the fruits, head for the woods in the autumn and attempt to find one. Maybe someone you know can help you. Even if you do not find the fruit much to your liking—maybe you will, maybe you won’t—you will have had a new gustatory experience.

For many years attempts have been made by horticulturists to ‘improve’ the papaw and make it into a commercially viable fruit. Their efforts notwithstanding, the fruit remains a Cinderella. On only one occasion have I seen papaws for sale: at a roadside farmer’s stand in southwestern Ohio among a fine display of squashes of a dozen kinds. Breeding and selection work has been carried out in several places, notably at Kentucky State University where about 1700 papaw trees grow in KSU’s 8-acre experimental farm and where the PawPaw Foundation is headquartered. Once, in Pennsylvania, I saw a papaw orchard of maybe 50 trees. I wish now that I had stopped and spoken with the orchard’s owner. Perhaps, with continued efforts at breeding and selection, papaws might some day be common items in our temperate fruit and vegetable markets, as common even as are the annonaceous cousins of Asimina triloba in markets of the tropics. This is the goal toward which papaw enthusiasts and breeders are striving.

President’s Message – August, 2022

Jeff Nelson, KNPS President 2022-2024

I write this message just a week after historic and unprecedented floods devastated Eastern Kentucky. I know I speak for all of our members when I say that our hearts are broken for the lives that were lost and the homes, businesses, and entire communities that were utterly destroyed. Unsurprisingly, Kentuckians across the Commonwealth have stepped up by volunteering and providing needed resources to their fellow Kentuckians. If you are reading this message and are looking for a way to help, a donation to the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund is one way to make a difference. Thank you.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the KNPS Fall Meeting, Saturday, October 15, at Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park. This will be a great opportunity to get together with other KNPS members and friends and to find out what the Society is planning for the end of this year and in 2023. We will also be taking easy walks through the Blue Licks State Nature Preserve to see the globally rare and endangered Short’s goldenrod (Solidago shortii). We are still working out details for the meeting but you can read about what we currently have planned here: KNPS 2022 Fall Meeting – Save The Date, Oct. 15. Learn more about Short’s goldenrod from this article from the Lady Slipper Archives, “A Short Take on Short’s Goldenrod.”

**^{Swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris)}**

This summer the Society built on the success of Wildflower Weekend by getting back to scheduled, in-person field trips. In June we had our first field trip of the year at the Ohio floodplains of the Ballard Wildlife Management Area in Ballard Co. The participants saw many wetland obligate species such as broadleaf arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia), green arrow arum (Peltandra virginica), as well as the lovely swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris), a species that is rare in KY and only known from two far western counties.

**^{Green comet milkweed (Asclepias verdiflora)}**

In July, Alan Abbott took a group to Buena Vista Glade in Taylor, Indiana, about 50 minutes west from downtown Louisville. This glade community has similar shallow soils and limestone bedrock as glades in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region, as well as similar plant communities. The group saw several interesting glade species, including straggling St. John’s-Wort (Hypericum dolabriforme), green comet milkweed (Asclepias verdiflora), and whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata).

At the end of July, the Society was finally able to present a workshop that had originally been scheduled for March, 2020, and which had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. The workshop, “Plant Family Identification Motifs: patterns for simplifying the complexity“, was given by Dr. J. Richard Abbott, Assistant Professor of Biology, and current Curator of the University of Arkansas Monticello Herbarium. With the cooperation and assistance of the good folks at Bernheim Arboretum, a group of around 20 native plant enthusiasts spent a day in the facilities and plantings at Bernheim, learning how to use certain motifs to ID plants to their plant families. The group learned a lot and as one participant, Carol, wrote, “Just wanted to drop a line that this class was fantastic! I’d attend a Part 2 session if there was one scheduled!”

Watch for more field trips and workshops in the months to come and remember that KNPS members get first shot at signing up for any of these events before they are opened to the general public.

Everything that KNPS does happens because of the support and help of our members and friends. On behalf of the Society, I want to thank everyone reading this message for caring about the native plants of our beautiful Commonwealth and for the support you give to the Kentucky Native Plant Society, thank you.

If you would like to get more involved with the activities of the Society or if you have any questions about KNPS or the native plants of Kentucky, please send us an email at KYPlants@knps.org

—- Jeff Nelson

From the Lady Slipper Archives: A Short Take on Short’s Goldenrod

The Lady Slipper newsletter of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. This one, about the globally rare, and endangered, Short’s Goldenrod, Solidago shortii, first appeared in the summer of 1999, Vol. 14, No. 2 & 3. If you would like to see other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 34, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2019 (after which we moved to this blog format) can be found.

If you would like to see this rare and beautiful goldenrod, plan now to attend the KNPS Fall Meeting on Oct. 15.

A Short Take on Short’s Goldenrod

by James Beck

^{In Berkshire with the Wild Flowers / Elaine & Dora Read Goodale / 1879 / W. Hamilton Gibson, Illustrator}

Anyone out for an afternoon walk or Sunday drive in Kentucky during late August through mid October just can’t miss the bright yellows in every field and fencerow that belong to the Goldenrods (Solidago sp.). Mary Wharton considered 32 different species in the Commonwealth. Two of them, the White Haired Goldenrod and Short’s Goldenrod, are endemic in Kentucky. They are known only from our state. [Editor’s note: at the time this article was written, Short’s goldenrod was only known from Kentucky. Since then a small population has been discovered across the Ohio in at least one county in Indiana.] The White Haired Goldenrod (Solidago albopilosa), discovered by E.L. Braun in the limestone clifflines of what is now Red River Gorge, is known from 90 populations and is listed as Federally Threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Short’s Goldenrod, (Solidago shortii), listed as Federally Endangered in 1985, is both a beautiful plant, and one with a fascinating history.

This species was first collected by the eminent Dr. C.W. Short (then chair of the Medical Department at the University of Louisville) on Rock Island, which lies at the famous “Falls of the Ohio” between Louisville and Clarksville, Indiana. This is one of several islands and stony outcrops which were dry for part of the year and completely submerged for the remainder, representing the only serious navigational impediment on the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Sent east for identification, the Goldenrod found at the Falls was subsequently described as a new species by Drs. John Torrey and Asa Gray, then hard at work on the landmark Flora of North America.

Civil engineering projects, culminating with the opening of a hydroelectric dam in 1930, have been historically blamed for the apparent disappearance and extinction of Short’s Goldenrod by the 1870s. It wasn’t until 1939 that the only other known population was discovered by Lucy Braun on rocky slopes and grazed pastures near Blue Licks Battlefield State Park at the convergence of Robertson, Nicholas, and Fleming Counties, Kentucky. Today 13 small subpopulations survive, all within the vicinity of Blue Licks.

The disappearance of this species at the Falls of the Ohio (which may have actually occurred some years before construction of the dam at Louisville) and its decline over the years at Blue Licks have always raised questions. Evidence exists that might support a connection between historic bison usage and S. shortii. Bison were possibly a seed dispersal mechanism, or perhaps Short’s Goldenrod benefited from the reduced plant competition that resulted from their trampling. The Falls of the Ohio represents the most logical crossing point of the Ohio River on a trail which led the bison from the Midwest to the springs and salt licks of central Kentucky. Blue Licks itself is a famous lick, one which lies on a well documented horseshoe-shaped bison trace which began at what is now Covington and made a large circuit through the region, meeting the Ohio again at present day Maysville.

**^{Solidago shortii from Britton & Brown’s Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions, 1913.}**

Short’s Goldenrod is easily identified in the field. Totally smooth, leathery leaves and the length of its involucre (the circle of bracts or leaflet-like structures surrounding each flower) separate it out from most of the other local Goldenrod species. The Riverbank Goldenrod, (Solidago rupestris) is the most similar in form, although simple habitat differences (riverbanks versus dry, glady conditions) should end any confusion. Three other Goldenrods, S. altissima, S. ulmifolia, and S. nemoralis, grow with S. shortii at Blue Licks, but sufficient morphological differences exist between them and Short’s, and anyone with a little patience and basic knowledge of terminology should have little trouble finding it.

Short’s Goldenrod is not included in Wharton and Barbour’s Kentucky wildflower guide. The best key to it is the key to Solidago in Gleason and Cronquist’s Manual of the Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada.

The easiest viewing of this rare species occurs in the Kentucky State Nature Preserve Commission’s Buffalo Trace Preserve, which is in the vicinity of Blue Licks Battlefield State Park. A truly unique and enjoyable day trip for any Kentuckian would be traveling from Lexington though Paris and on to the Park, all on US Highway 68. In just a few hours one could enjoy the majesty of the Bluegrass horse farms and the beauty of probably the rarest variety of our state flower.

Plant Family Identification Workshop

Plant Family Identification Motifs: patterns for simplifying the complexity

Instructor: Dr. Richard Abbott*

When: ~~Saturday, July 30, 2022~~ Workshop has finished
Time: 9am-4pm Eastern Time
Where: Bernheim Arboretum & Forest, meet at the Garden Pavilion
Cost: $25 /$10 for students
Bring your own lunch, and wear hiking shoes

Using minimal basic vocabulary, approximately 30 plant families, and half a dozen artificial motifs, we will focus on plant identification patterns. Learning Kentucky plants within a global framework not only empowers confidence in knowing what you know, but enables identifying more than 130,000 plants to family globally and provides a solid foundation for incorporating other family patterns. Essentially, this workshop is an introduction to a way of thinking about how to organize botanical knowledge in a practical, applied way.

*About the Instructor

Dr. J. Richard Abbott, Assistant Professor of Biology, is the current Curator of the University of Arkansas Monticello Herbarium. At UAM, he teaches General Botany, Ecology, Medical Terminology, Regional Flora, and Plants in Our World and conducts floristic, systematic, and taxonomic research, especially with the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology and German from Berea College in Kentucky and both M.S. degree and Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Florida in Gainesville. His primary passion is teaching plant identification, using the local flora to understand global patterns. To that end, he is currently working to establish a living teaching collection on the UAM campus, with the ultimate goal of cultivating as many families and genera as possible.

Registration Form

Please fill out the form below to register for the workshop. The workshop is limited to 20 participants.

From the Lady Slipper Archives: Western Kentucky’s Swamp Leather-flower

The Lady Slipper newsletter of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. This one, about a rare, and threatened, native vine, Clematis crispa, commonly known as Blue Jasmine or Swamp Leather-Flower, first appeared in the summer of 2013, Vol. 28, No. 2. If you would like to see other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 34, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2019 (after which we moved to this blog format) can be found.

Western Kentucky’s Swamp Leather-flower

Robert Dunlap, OKNP Volunteer

^{Swamp leather-flower (Clematis crispa)
© Bob Dunlap}

One of the plants I look for every spring in western Kentucky is Clematis crispa, commonly known as Blue Jasmine or Swamp Leather-Flower. C. crispa is listed as “Threatened” by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves and is only known from the four western counties along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers – Ballard, Carlisle, Hickman and Fulton. It occurs in a few counties across the rivers in southern Illinois and western Missouri and becomes more common as you head into the southern states.

As its name implies, this native clematis likes to grow in wetlands, floodplains and swamps. All of the sites where I’ve found this plant growing in Ballard and Carlisle counties are flooded for some portion of the year when the rivers decide to overflow their banks. In addition to enjoying getting its feet wet, C. crispa prefers a bright location and is usually found competing for sunlight along with all the other vine species that like to grow in swampy conditions. The stems of this herbaceous vine grow to a length of 6- 10 feet and the plants die back to ground level each winter. The flowers consist of four sepals (no petals) that curl backwards resulting in an urn-like appearance.

^{Seedhead of Clematis Crispa
© Bob Dunlap}

Finding this plant in the field is a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Searching for the purple-blue flowers before the neighboring vines have put out all of their foliage affords the best chance for success. Another option that requires good eyesight is to search for the distinctive seed pods, sometimes referred to as “Devil’s Darning Needles” in the fall.

Two additional native clematis species that can be found in western Kentucky include C. pitcheri (Bluebill) and C. virginiana (Virgin’s Bower). Differentiating C. crispa from C. pitcheri is best accomplished by examining the undersides of the leaves. C. pitcheri exhibits a prominent raised network of veins which are absent on C. crispa.

A quick internet search turned up several native plant nurseries where Swamp Leather- Flower can be purchased. From the planting advice given on these sites it apparently does well when grown in containers and I’m guessing it would make a nice addition to an outdoor pond or water garden

Poetry Corner

By Liz Neihoff

We only live
in a lighter sea
and so hear and
see, in Summer’s
cottonwood crowns,
South Sea breakers
where big salt lands.

Wax is buffed
to green crystal shine.
As thousands of gimbeling
leaves dance and flash
at Summer’s height.
A welcome sound
of moist air comes
over the ridges,
all free as a breeze.