Native spotlight: Chelone

By Robert Dunlap

We have several native plants in Kentucky named after reptiles, snakeroot, lizard’s tail, adder’s tongue fern, and three rattlesnakes, master, plantain, and root. We also have green dragon and snapdragon, but they don’t really count because, well, you know…. the one named after a turtle is appropriately named turtlehead.

Kentucky’s two turtleheads are distinguished by flower color, white and red. White turtlehead (Chelone glabra) has been observed in 38 of our 120 counties across the state but is mostly absent west of the Land Between the Lakes. Red turtlehead, also called Pink or Rose, (Chelone obliqua var. speciosa) fills the void in western Kentucky and is also found in a few counties towards the center of the state (10 total). A rare third variety of Red turtlehead (classified as endangered) grows in three southeastern counties (Chelone obliqua var. obliqua). Another pink variety that is commercially available is Lyon’s turtlehead (Chelone lyonii), but it is not native to Kentucky.

Description and growing conditions

Chelone

As the name implies, turtleheads possess flowers that resemble the head of a turtle. They grow two to three feet tall with opposite, lanceolate leaves sporting serrated edges that can reach a length of six inches. The one to one a half inch flowers are borne on a dense terminal spike in late summer to early fall and persist for about a month.

Turtleheads grow in wetlands and enjoy keeping their feet wet and their tops in full sun or partial shade. They aren’t picky about pH and can tolerate both acid and basic soils if organic matter is present. The flowers are visited by hummingbirds and pollinated by bumble bees which appreciate having a late season food source available before entering diapause for the winter. Deer generally avoid the plants due to their bitter leaves but some amount of browsing can occur where deer populations are high. I sacrificed a leaf from one of my seedlings (see below) to verify the bitter leaf theory and can attest that it is true. That being said, the dried leaves are used to make tea, and they are also incorporated into an ointment.

Red turtlehead is listed as a species of special concern by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. To gauge its rarity, consider that there are only seven observations of red turtlehead in Kentucky on iNaturalist. Compare that with 1,224 may apples, 1,110 spring beauties and 1,086 blue phloxes.

Chelone

I was fortunate to find several Red turtlehead plants last fall in McCracken County. I collected seeds in November, sowed half of them immediately and the remainder stayed in my garage until March. The germination rate for both batches was very high – probably 75 percent. There were no problems with damping off or other fungal issues and I’m looking forward to finding homes for about 60 seedlings this fall.  

Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly

The white turtlehead (not the red) is the host plant for the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly, which has been the state insect of Maryland since 1973. It was named for George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore who helped found the colony of Maryland. Its wing spot colors and patterns resemble those on the Calvert family crest. Unfortunately, it has experienced a significant population decline and is currently listed as rare in the state. In 2012, the Baltimore Checkerspot Recovery Team of Maryland formed to develop and implement plans to reverse this trend, which includes increasing the white turtlehead population in the state. Details of their plan including an excellent section on turtlehead propagation can be found at Conservation and Management of the Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton) in the Maryland Piedmont: Strategies for Wetland Restoration, Captive Breeding and Release

It is also rare in Kentucky having been reported from only 18 counties. There is only one iNaturalist observation of this butterfly in Kentucky, from Henry County. While the odds are high that you’ve never seen a Baltimore checkerspot in the wild, it’s possible you’ve seen one in your mailbox. The US Postal Service issued two stamps with the image of this butterfly: a 13-cent stamp in 1977 and a 65-cent stamp in 2012.

So how did the state butterfly of Maryland make it onto two stamps whereas Kentucky’s state butterfly, the viceroy, has yet to grace an envelope in the United States? I’m guessing the fact that the Maryland border is about four miles from the United States Postal System Headquarters in downtown DC has something to do with it. Of course, everyone would mistake our viceroy with a monarch anyway, so maybe we will never see our butterfly on a stamp!

So why should you add turtlehead to your native plant garden? This hardy, easy-to-grow perennial with distinctive flowers will lend color to your garden late into the fall. Bumble bees and hummingbirds will thank you for giving them a late season nectar source after many of our other native plants have gone to seed. Finally, we all know how we are all encouraged to plant milkweed to help the monarch butterfly. The fact is there are many other insects that need our help. So, plant turtlehead in your garden and maybe you will be lucky enough to see a checkerspot butterfly in real life instead of just on a postage stamp!

Robert Dunlap is an amateur naturalist living near Paducah who owns every Peterson Field Guide that was ever published. 

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

KNPS 2022 Fall Meeting – Save The Date, Oct. 15

Save the date for our 2022 Fall Meeting at Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park on Saturday, October 15th. There will be a meeting in the morning from 10am-noon with interesting talks and updates from KNPS, and hikes in the afternoon to look at some of the plants and communities that occur at the state park. The fall meeting will be held in tandem with the Short’s Goldenrod Festival being put on by the state park.

Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park is known as one of the only locations in the world where the rare Short’s goldenrod occurs, with the other known population occurring in Indiana. Short’s goldenrod is a perennial herb that grows in glades, along old bison traces, in old fields, and on rock cuts along roads. It has typical yellow goldenrod flowers and hairless foliage. It blooms from mid-August to late October, so it will be in full bloom for all to see at the fall meeting. Other potential flowers of note to see will be Agueweed (Gentianella occidentalis), Cream Gentian (Gentiana alba), and Great Plains Ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum).

Stay posted for next month’s Lady Slipper for more details!

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.

© Tom Barnes

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
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

Monarchs and Milkweed in Kentucky

By Sandra Elliott, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) caterpillar on common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) leaf.
Photo by Sandra Elliott.

Of all the pollinators native to Kentucky, the monarch is likely one of the most recognized. This universally known insect is one of the first to come to mind when someone says “butterfly.” These striking orange and black butterflies will migrate up to 3,000 miles each year, spanning three to four generations.

The starting line of this year-long marathon is in the mountains of Mexico where adult butterflies that have migrated south have overwintered in oyamel fir forests. These monarchs take flight in early spring and reproduce in northern Mexico and the southern US to create Generation 1.

This generation of monarchs will head north as adults and breed along the way. Generation 2, the offspring of the previous migratory parents, will grow and head north as well in early summer. Generations 3 and 4 will be laid in the northern US and southern Canada. This last generation will become adults at the northern limits of their range and will begin their travels south to the overwintering grounds in Mexico in late summer and early fall. These are the butterflies that will kick off the next round of migrations like their great-great grandparents.

Milkweed for monarch success

In order for this year long migration of multiple generations to be successful, monarch butterflies depend on flowering plants to first fuel their own bodies for flight and reproduction, and second to be a breeding ground and food source for their offspring. The most important of these plants are the milkweeds that are the obligatory nursery plants of monarch caterpillars. Monarchs will only lay eggs on the leaves of milkweed, and these are the only plants that sustain the growing caterpillars. Unfortunately, there has been a great loss of monarch habitat and the monarch butterfly is being considered for listing as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act.

Within the state of Kentucky, there is a great deal of support for the conservation of the monarch butterfly. Both agencies and individuals are putting forth efforts to increase habitat area for monarchs, and for other pollinators native to the state as well. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources set forth by developing the Kentucky Monarch Conservation Plan in collaboration with other monarch stakeholders.

The Plan outlines goals and strategies for the conservation of the butterfly and its habitat. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture developed the Kentucky Pollinator Protection Plan, and a multitude of other state agencies, entities and private organizations participate in the Kentucky Pollinator Stakeholder Group to conserve both monarchs and pollinators in the state. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has had a large hand in developing about 200 acres of pollinator habitat. Roadsides, interstate rest areas, and interchanges are a few places that KYTC has developed for pollinators. You can see these eye-catching Pollinator Habitat Zones on the sides of interstates, and you can even see these bright pops of color bordering elevated lanes in the heart of Louisville.

Even organizations that specialize in native game birds and that have initiatives to restore native grassland habitat for quail and pheasants also have the monarch in mind. There are so many animals that benefit from promoting the regeneration of grasslands native to Kentucky just by virtue of being native; native pollinator plants are able to thrive when lands are managed to maintain these grasslands. These agencies and organizations have the ultimate goal of improving habitats for all native species, not just the few they are targeting for conservation.

Monarchs are also assisted by individuals like you. Planting small monarch gardens wherever there is space for them is one way people help boost pollinator habitat area. These gardens can also be registered with MonarchWatch.org as waystations so all contributions can be tracked and appreciated. In Kentucky alone, there are currently 957 waystations registered! The most crucial part of planting and maintaining a monarch garden is including milkweed. Much of it grows wild across the state! Butterfly milkweed (A. tuberosa), common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), and swamp milkweed (A. incarnata) are three that are common in Kentucky.

Monarchs will also utilize other flowers as nectar sources, and it’s important to provide plants that flower throughout the year so monarchs have sources of energy during both the breeding season as well as during their migration south in the fall. Aside from milkweed, black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta), beebalm (Monarda didyma), mountain mint (Pycnanthemum), goldenrod (Solidago), blazing star (Liatris), ironweed (Vernonia), and smooth aster (Symphyotrichum) are just a few of many native pollinator plants that could be included in monarch gardens to attract a variety of pollinators. The Kentucky Native Plant Society maintains a list of native plant vendors across the state to help those who are looking for plant resources: https://www.knps.org/native-plant-nurseries/.

What can you do if you don’t have the space for a garden? Participating in community science initiatives aids in spreading awareness and education about the current challenges faced by the monarch butterfly. There are opportunities to track monarchs along their migration route (visit monarchjointventure.org and journeynorth.org to learn more). A monarch you help tag in the fall could be recorded in Mexico! Follow us on Facebook at “Kentucky Monarchs” as we share information and links related to monarch butterflies in Kentucky, and remember that no effort is too small to help conserve monarchs!

Sandra Elliott is an at-risk species technician with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.