Produced from the FloraManager database system by Michael T. Lee
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU), North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The 2020 edition of the Flora of the Southeastern United States, covering over 10,000 species, was published in October. The Flora covers the biogeographic region of the moist, relictual, unglaciated southeastern North America: south of the glacial boundary and east of the “dry line” to the west that marks a marked floristic boundary to the Great Plains prairies to the northwest and the Madrean woodlands and scrub to the southwest. By states, this means that coverage includes the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and parts of Texas (the eastern Pineywoods, Coastal Prairies, Cross Timbers, Blackland Prairies, and South Texas Sand Sheet), Oklahoma (eastern Interior Highlands and Cross Timbers), Missouri (southern Interior Highlands), and Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio (southern unglaciated portions).
The Flora of the Southeastern United States is an open access, collaborative resource about the plants of the southeastern quarter of the United States. The Flora can be downloaded for free from the University of North Carolina’s North Carolina Botanical Garden’s website:
The NC Botanical Garden and UNC Chapel Hill Herbarium will publish 30 additional “derivative floras” covering smaller portions of the region (physiographic regions and states) that will be ‘handier’ for many users.
From Dr. Alan S. Weakley: “As a reminder to those who have downloaded (or will download) the full Flora or who will download the derivative floras, we give it away for free not because it is so cheap, but because it is so valuable and important — that it should be open access.
However, it IS costly to develop and produce, and,
if you value its contents (consider what you would pay for this amount of information in most floras), and
especially if you use it for commercial purposes, and
ONLY if you are able, … we encourage you to support the work that goes into this open access, collaborative resource about the plants of the southeastern quarter of the United States. We will use funds received to make the 2021 edition better and more responsive to your needs (let me know your wishes, at weakley at unc.edu). But please, donate if you can.”
For years, the Kentucky Native Plant Society has sold t-shirts with our logo at our annual events. With the online KNPS Gear Shop at the KNPS website you can purchase t-shirts and other items from the comfort and safety of home.
In the shop we currently have heavy cotton unisex t-shirts, kid’s t-shirts, long sleeve t-shirts, men’s polo shirts, women’s t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, and crew neck sweatshirts. In addition, we have coffee mugs, stainless steel water bottles, and a ruled line notebook. The items in the shop have our KNPS logo that features the rare and beautiful Kentucky lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium kentuckiense).
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and recognizing that we will likely need to wear masks for many months to come, we have recently added a three layer face mask to the Shop. The mask has outer layers of polyester, with an inner layer of cotton. The mask is 7″ wide and 4.5″ high.
The products in the KNPS Gear Shop come from a Print-On-Demand service. Each product is produced by the manufacturer at the time of the order. Neither KNPS nor the manufacturer maintains any inventory. Because of this returns or exchanges are not possible if you order a wrong size, color, or simply don’t like the product. Please carefully double check any order before placing it. We can make exchanges if the product arrives damaged in some way.
Hope that you will take some time and visit the Gear Shop in coming days.
The Lady Slipper newsletter of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. This is one of a series of reprints from past issues. This article, about North America’s largest native fruit, the pawpaw (Asimina triloba), found in every county of KY, 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.
The author, John Thieret, left a huge legacy to the native plant community when he passed in 2005. “Kentucky has lost its most renowned American plant taxonomist of the 20th century. John W. Thieret, Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at Northern Kentucky University, retired Director of the Northern Kentucky University Herbarium, Associate Editor of Sida, Contributions to Botany, and Editor of the Journal of the Kentucky Academy of Science (JKAS) passed away on 7 December 2005, at Alexandria, Kentucky.”
To learn more about this giant of Kentucky Botany, read the articles and tributes to him in the Winter 2005/Spring 2006, Vol. 20, No. 1, of the Lady Slipper archives.
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 in1754 the first illustration of the papaw appeared in Catesby’s Natural History of Carolinas (see right). Lewis and Clark, in the early 19thcentury, 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.
The Lady Slipper newsletter of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. This is one of a series of reprints from past issues. This article, about one of Kentucky’s loveliest goldenrods, first appeared in the spring of 2005, Vol. 20, No. 1. 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.
The author, Mary Carol Cooper, left a huge legacy to the native plant community when she passed in 2016. In almost every native plant gathering, her name is mentioned and a moment is given over to appreciate her knowledge, which she freely shared. Her passion led many of us to our love of natives; she was a mentor and friend to many of us.
2005 Wildflower of the Year SHOWY GOLDENROD (Solidago speciosa)
By Mary Carol Cooper Salato Native Plant Program Coordinator Salato Wildlife Education Center
Photo by Tom Barnes
Wildflower enthusiasts from all across the state have selected Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) as the Salato Native Plant Program’s Wildflower of the Year for 2005. The Wildflower of the Year is chosen based on the number of nominations it receives and how well it fits the established criteria; must be native to Kentucky, common and widespread across the state, seeds must be readily available, must be easy to grow, and must have good wildlife value.
Showy Goldenrod is a hardy perennial that grows 2 to 6 feet tall, depending on where it is planted. It is a rather showy species with stout, smooth, reddish stems and smooth, deep green leaves that are 4 to 10 inches and not toothed. It grows in rich thickets, woodland openings, fields, and prairies. It likes average to well drained soil and grows in sun to partial sun. It has dense upright pyramidal flower clusters. Each flower head has 6 to 8 rays. Showy Goldenrod blooms in late in the summer (August to September) and is wonderful as a late summer nectaring source for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. It also provides food for several species of songbirds such as the Goldfinch, Junco, Pine Siskin, Song and Tree Sparrows.
Goldenrods are insect pollinated and their pollen is heavy and sticky. Therefore their pollen is never in the wind, so contrary to popular belief, this is not the plant that has always been blamed for causing hay fever. It is ragweed that causes all the misery! Ragweed blooms at the same time and is wind pollinated. I’ve enjoyed watching more and more floral designers use goldenrods in their arrangements and wonder how many people are aware that their lovely bouquet is full of the “dreaded goldenrod”.
Goldenrod is truly a North American flower. There are approximately 125 species in North America and more than 30 of these are native to Kentucky. Since the State Flower is Solidago ssp. this must mean that we have 30 State Flowers! Two of out native goldenrods, White-Haired Goldenrod and Short’s Goldenrod are on the Federally endangered species list.
Showy Goldenrod makes a nice background or midground plant in a sunny perennial garden. Establish this plant at the very rear of the garden or in the very middle of a circular or oval garden. Allow 3 feet between plants as this species grows into large clumps very fast. They can be divided every year or so and given to friends and neighbors. Nice companion plants are Ironweed, Great Blue Lobelia and New England Aster. Plants naturalize quickly on dry sunny banks. The cuttings are outstanding in arrangements.
The genus name Solidago comes from the Latin word that means “to make whole” or “to heal”, a name chosen because of medicinal power the plant was believed to have. The Native Americans used this plant for many things including ridding people from pain and evil spirits. One Goldenrod superstition says that he who carries the plant will find treasure, therefore, Goldenrod is the symbol for treasure and good fortune.
Goldenrod seeds and plants are available from many native plant nurseries. It is also very easy to propagate either by seeds, or division. Sow seeds thickly in outdoor seedbeds early in the fall or sow stored seed later in a flat indoors or in a cold frame. Transplant when there are 3 to 4 leaves. When the roots fill the pot, transplant in the garden after the last frost date. Collect seeds in late September or October. Cut off seed heads and put them upside down in a large paper bag. Let them dry for up to a week and then shake them in the bag and put the seeds in a sealed container.
On a cold, but sunny Saturday in late February, eighteen members of KNPS met at the Bernheim Arboretum Visitor’s Center to begin the process of developing a long range strategic plan for the Society. It was a great mix of members with decades of membership in KNPS, brand new members, professional botanists, and amateur naturalists.
Strategic planning is simply the process of defining the long term direction (or strategy) of the Kentucky Native Plant Society, and then making decisions on allocating resources to pursue this strategy. The strategic planning process begins with an organization’s mission statement. A mission statement simply defines the purpose of the organization answering the question, “why does KNPS exist?”
“The mission of the Kentucky Native Plant Society is to promote education, preservation, and protection of Kentucky’s native plants and ecological systems.”
After discussing the mission of KNPS, the members broke into small groups to brainstorm the Society’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and challenges to the Society from outside events and forces. This was a great process and resulted in a good understanding of both the internal and external environments that the Society functions within.
The group ended the morning session with a review of the Society’s long term goals. These are:
To serve as the KY native plant education resource
To promote appreciation of the biodiversity of native plant ecosystems
To encourage the appropriate use of native plants
To support native plant research
To support efforts to identify and protect endangered, threatened, and rare native plant species
In the afternoon the group used a process called structured brainstorming to develop a list of initiatives and actions that should be taken to create the desired future for the Society. In developing the initiatives, the group focused on the mission and goals and considered how the initiatives could move the Society in the direction set by those elements. A list of over 60 possible initiatives were generated. The group narrowed that list down to 10 (list below).
Unfortunately, shortly after the session, COVID-19 changed everything and additional work on narrowing down the list to the top 3 strategic initiatives was put on hold. Fortunately, that gives you, the members and friends of the Kentucky Native Plant Society, the opportunity to participate in the process. Review the initiatives below and then go to this online form and let us know what initiatives the Society should concentrate on over the next 3-5 years.
Potential Initiatives for KNPS to Undertake
Education and Outreach
Continue/re-do the native plant stewardship program with a required practical element
Presence at more conservation (“green”) related events
Bring back the botanical symposium and have it be a real collaboration of botanical professionals
Governance/Leadership/Organizational Structure
Volunteer Coordinator or Volunteer committee
Restructuring board to create more positions to share the workload – make sure everyone knows what their jobs are
Communications Director for press releases, etc./someone needs to work with sister organizations
Preservation, Conservation, and Restoration
Shortage of plants used in restoration projects…some states have set up prisons to produce plants. We could work with government agencies to set up plants. Coordinate with Master Gardeners
K12 Education/Children Involvement
Partner with local parks/schools for kids mini garden… children’s gardens
Creating a board position that is K-12 outreach coordinator, teaching and outreach (schools, scouts, etc.)
In any list of the top five invasive plant threats to Kentucky’s native plant communities, bush honeysuckle would appear in all of them. There are three species of bush honeysuckle commonly found in Kentucky: Amur (Lonicera maackii), Morrow’s (L. morrowii), and Tartarian (L. tatarica). Another two, Standish’s (L. standishii) and Fragrant (L. fragrantissima), are less common. All are members of the Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle) family. All of them are similar in appearance and effect. Because of the similarities and because it is the most widespread of the bush honeysuckles, the rest of this article will concentrate on Amur honeysuckle. There are slight differences in appearance between Amur honeysuckle and the other bush honeysuckles, but in general they are similar enough to easily recognize.
Description
Most of us have seen invasive Lonicera while hiking or even around town. They’re everywhere. Knowing how to identify them is the first step to removing them.
Appearance
Lonicera maackii is a woody perennial shrub that, at maturity, is typically 6’-20’ tall, but occasionally taller. The shrubs are upright and deciduous. Although deciduous, in Kentucky the bush honeysuckles retain their leaves longer in the fall than native shrubs and leaf out earlier in the spring. The pith of mature stems is hollow and white or tan.
Leaves
Leaves are opposite, ovate with a tapered tip, lightly pubescent, and up to 3½ in. long.
Flowers
Flowers are paired, tubular, white to pinkish, fading to yellow, less than 1 in. long, borne from leaf axils, five petals, upper 4 fused.
Fruits
Fruit
Fruits are red to orange-red berries produced in late summer and persist through the winter. This shrub can bear fruit when it is as young as 3 to 5 years old.
Habitat
Amur
honeysuckle is one of the most common and invasive bush honeysuckles
found in Kentucky. It occurs in most states in the eastern U.S.
except for Minnesota, Maine and Florida and has been reported to be
invasive in many. It is adaptable to a range of conditions from sun
to deep shade and wet to dry. It occurs in disturbed habitats
including forest edges, forest interiors, floodplains, old fields,
pastures, and roadsides. Disturbance increases the likelihood of
invasion. Amur honeysuckle grows especially well on calcareous soils.
It spreads by fruits that are abundant and highly attractive to birds that consume them and defecate the seeds in new locations. Vegetative sprouting aids in the local spread and persistence. It does not generally root sprout.
Where Found in KY
The
bush honeysuckles are found across Kentucky, in any just about any
suitable habitat.
How it Got Here
NE
China, Japan, Korea, and Russian Far East
Amur honeysuckle was imported as an ornamental into New York in 1898 through the New York Botanical Garden. It has been widely planted for wildlife cover and soil erosion control but long ago escaped from plantings and began reproducing on its own and spreading into natural areas. It was originally planted in the U.S. as an ornamental shrub, but it quickly escaped gardens and naturalized throughout much of the eastern U.S. to the Great Plains into a variety of sites including roadsides and railroads, woodland borders, some forests, fields, unused or disturbed lands and yard edges. Once spread into the wild, it can form dense, shrubby, understory colonies that eliminate native woody and herbaceous plants. Amur honeysuckle flowers late April to June, and the white and yellowish flowers produce red berries in the fall that may contain more than 1 million seeds on mature (25-year-old), 20-foot tall plants. The seeds are consumed and spread by some species of songbirds generally after other more nutritious native foods are gone. As with many invasive species, bush honeysuckle can grow and thrive over a wide range of habitats. In Kentucky, all shrub honeysuckles are exotic and invasive.
Ecological
Impacts
Amur honeysuckle impedes reforestation of cut or disturbed areas and prevents reestablishment of native plants. It leaves out earlier than most natives and form dense thickets too shady for most native species. Additionally, researchers in the Midwest found increased nest predation of robins using Amur honeysuckle as a result of plant structure, which facilitates access to nests by predators such as snakes. While the carbohydrate-rich fruits of exotic honeysuckles provide some nutrition for birds and rodents in winter, they do not compare to the lipid-rich fruits of native species that provide greater energy to sustain migrating birds. Few insects feed on the plant, but birds and mammals spread the fruits. It may have allelopathic effects on neighboring plant species.
How to Control
There are several methods for controlling–removing–invasive bush honeysuckle. They all take tenacity and a bit of effort.
Manual/Mechanical
Young plants can be pulled by hand. Larger plants either can be pulled using a weed lever-type tool or cutting repeatedly for a few years.
Grazing
Goats are particularly fond of this this plant and will rapidly consume young plants and any they can climb into. Cutting larger plants and allowing goats to eat the sprouts can be effective, but could take several years depending on what root reserves the plants have.
Fire
Fire will kill seedlings. Larger plants may be top killed, but mostly likely will sprout from the base. The sprouts must be treated as well.
Biological Control
No biological controls are currently available for this plant. However, the honeysuckle leaf blight fungus (Insolibasidium deformans) has been found in both northern and central Kentucky. It has been observed severely injuring and killing open grown populations of Amur honeysuckle.
Herbicides
Appropriate herbicides, when applied correctly, are known to effectively control bush honeysuckle through cut stem, foliar, and bark applications. Contact your local Extension Office, or Natural Resources Conservation Service office or Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife private lands biologist for recommendations concerning herbicide choice, application rate and application method that best suit your conditions and needs.
Native Alternatives
Lonicera simpervirens
Whether you were raised in Kentucky or you’re an implant, you’ve probably enjoyed the luscious fragrance of honeysuckle as the sun begins to set. It isn’t quite jasmine; not quite gardenia; it’s unique, powerful, and intoxicating. It’s easy to understand why homeowners planted the invasive Loniceras. Where alternatives are concerned, there’s good and bad news. The good news is that we have native Lonicera. The bad news is, they are pollinated by bees and hummingbirds, so the scent is weak. In comparison, the invasive is pollinated by moths—hence the strong evening scent. What the natives lack in fragrance, they make up for in color (to attract the bees and hummingbirds).
Across North America, there are over a dozen native Lonicera species. In Kentucky, we have one to consider: Lonicera sempervirens L., trumpet or coral honeysuckle. It prefers moist soil and full sun, but tolerates shade, although, in the shade, it will produce blooms for a shorter period of time.
Lonicera simpervirens
Lonicera sempervirens is one of the longest-blooming natives available to us here in Kentucky. It’s brilliant red trumpet-shaped flowers spring into life as early as late March and persist into fall, even early winter. Its leaves often persist throughout the cold, giving a bit of winter interest. The base is woody and gnarly (interesting to look at) but the vigorous upper vines are gentle and easily coiffed if necessary. You can train it to look like a bush if you prefer.
Unfortunately, Lonicera sempervirens won’t gift you with a glorious fragrance. If that’s what you’re after, consider Wisteria frutescens (L.) Poir., Kentucky wisteria. Similar to Lonicera, you’ll get the most blooms in full sun, but it will tolerate shade. It’ll grow in the same type of moist soil as well. It’s purple blooms are larger and showier, and it’ll grow a bit larger than Lonicera, but the native species isn’t as harmful to structures as the invasive Wisteria floribunda and Wisteria sinensis. Wisteria is stronger and woodier than Lonicera so it will require a stronger support, such as a strong arbor. (Resist growing it along a fence or up the side of your house because it’s difficult to remove.) It’s also more assertive than the native Lonicera, so it might require a bit more care to keep it under control.
There are several other species of Lonicera listed as native to Kentucky by the USDA plants database, but they’re rare or endangered. It’s unlikely you will find one in a reputable nursery.
Anyone who is interested in native plants will soon come across the term “invasive.” Invasive species and habitat loss are the main causes of biodiversity loss and destruction of native plant species worldwide. Although most of us have a general sense of what is meant when a species is deemed invasive, there is also a lot of confusion as to what an invasive plant is, what it does, and what should be done about it.
Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)
With this introduction, we are beginning a series of articles about invasive plants. In this first article we will define what is meant by an “invasive plant.” We will discuss why they are bad for our native ecosystems and discuss, in general, how they can be controlled. We will also point you towards online resources about invasive plants. In each subsequent article we will concentrate on a single type of invasive plant, giving information on how to identify the plant, where it came from, how it got here, the specific damage it does, how best to control it, and some native alternatives to plant when it has been removed.
