By Jeff Nelson, KNPS President
On Saturday, June 15, a group of KNPS members and friends enjoyed a field trip to the Ballard WMA in Ballard county in far western Kentucky. Ballard Wildlife Management Area is 8,000 acres located in the Ohio River bottomlands ecoregion in far western Kentucky. The WMA is mostly wetland with 39% of the acreage in wetland, 28% forest, 27% open land, and 6% open water. Much of the wetland is comprised of rare, cypress-tupelo swamps and sloughs which many Kentuckians have not had the opportunity to experience. The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves lists cypress-tupelo swamp as a state endangered ecosystem.
The group caravanned around the WMA, making stops and enjoying many species of native plants. Many were in flower, some just budding, and some making fruit. Among the species observed were lizard’s tail (Saururus cernuus), starry campion (Silene stellata), pale Indian plantain (Arnoglossum atriplicifolium), Virginia dayflower (Commelina virginica), lots of buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), common milkweed (A. syriaca), woodland pinkroot (Spigelia marilandica), water parsnip (Sium suave), and Kentucky wisteria (Wisteria macrostachya though some botanists consider this a variety of W. frutescens).
We also encountered a few species that are found in Kentucky only in the western counties of the state. Aquatic milkweed (Asclepias perennis) occurs mostly in thin swampy woods on somewhat base-rich soils. It is unique among the Kentucky milkweeds in that it is the only one that does not have fluff on the seeds. This is because the seeds evolved to be distributed by flowing water, not wind as with the other milkweed species. Boykin’s clusterpea (Lackeya multiflora) is a native legume that grows primarily in thin bottomland woods and thickets on subhydric to submesic soils. It has the largest leaves of any trifoliate legume in the United States. Whitenymph (Trepocarpus aethusae) is a small, winter annual in the Apiaceae family. It grows in the margins of swamp forests and sandy river bottoms. It is rare in Kentucky and is monitored as a species of special concern by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.
