by Alan Abbott

One of the defining characteristics of the Bluegrass and Pennyroyal Plateau regions is the presence of small, rocky glades. Broadly speaking, a glade is any clearing in a forest. But in our part of the country, it tends to refer to areas with a shallow soil and a limestone bedrock, usually on south- or west-facing slopes. Without trees shading everything out, a rich layer of grasses and forbs emerges. As islands of grassland within larger forested areas, they tend to have high rates of endemism, or plants found only within one, relatively small area. Some plants can be found only in a few counties (like Kentucky gladecress, Leavenworthia exigua var. laciniata) or a narrow region, like the Interior Low Plateau, which runs from northern Alabama, through central Tennessee and Kentucky and into south-central Indiana.

Their isolation means that glades separated by only a few miles can have surprisingly different plant communities. In Harrison County, Indiana, which has similar shallow soils and limestone bedrock as Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region, one glade may have hundreds of Echinacea and a similar one walking distance away won’t have any.

There are a number of opportunities to see limestone glades in the greater Louisville area this year. As part of the Botany Blitz, KNPS members met at Pine Creek Barrens in Shepardsville to see Kentucky gladecress, as well as the more common spring ephemerals in the woods that surrounded the grasslands.

In Indiana, the Nature Conservancy had a Glade Appreciation Day on May 7^th in Harrison County. Information for many of the glades of the area can be found here: Harrison County Glades | The Nature Conservancy

KNPS will be providing a tour of some Harrison County glades in July, when the wildflower show should be near its peak. More information to follow. The glades are about 45 minutes northwest of Louisville.

We’ll also be offering another tour of Pine Creek Barrens in September to see the Asters and Blazing Stars.

Check out this new publication about Trilliums of North America! The report, “The Conservation Status of Trillium in North America,” presents the analysis of 53 plant taxa using two different methodologies. Authors found that habitat loss, overpopulation of white-tailed deer, and habitat disturbance caused by feral pigs are the primary threats to North American Trillium. Every trillium that occurs in North America is included in this publication.

 The Conservation Status of Trillium in North Am…

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359830951_The_Conservation_Status_of_Trillium_in_North_America

Other important links highlighting this publication can be found below:

https://www.natureserve.org/publications/conservation-status-trillium-north-america

https://www.cabq.gov/artsculture/biopark/news/iconic-wildflowers-in-peril#:~:text=The%20report%2C%20%E2%80%9CThe%20Conservation%20Status%20of%20Trillium%20in,are%20the%20primary%20threats%20to%20North%20American%20Trillium.

Check out this video of Trilliums of Kentucky!

by Jeff Nelson, KNPS President, 2022-2024

The Kentucky Native Plant Society has had a busy and exciting few weeks recently. From April 8th through the 10th, over 100 native plant enthusiasts came together to enjoy KNPS’ first, in-person, Wildflower Weekend since 2019. Although temperatures were cool and skies were damp at Natural Bridge SRP, spirits were high as folks dressed for the weather and enjoyed 14 different native plant walks led by an incredible group of expert botanists. Saturday night, a large group of KNPS members and friends met in the Woodland Center for presentations by Ted Brancheau, Nick Koenig, and the keynote speaker, Mike Homoya. We are working on articles for May’s Lady Slipper all about Wildflower Weekend 2022, but for now, you can read about the events on the Wildflower Weekend page.

Leading up to Wildflower Weekend 2022, from April 2 through April 8, KNPS organized a week-long BotanyBlitz project on iNaturalist. This was our second year for this event and the KNPS Wildflower Week 2022 Botany Blitz exceeded all expectations, with over 4,600 observations of 539 different plant species across Kentucky. Look for Vanessa Voelker’s article about the 2022 BotanyBlitz in next month’s Lady Slipper.

To educate the public about iNaturalist and to promote the KNPS Wildflower Week’s BotanyBlitz iNaturalist Project, on Saturday, April 2, eleven tutorial hikes, led by experienced iNaturalist users, were held in parks and natural areas across the state. These hikes were geared towards beginning iNaturalist users and taught them how to make observations and navigate the app. Look for Rachel Cook’s article about the tutorial hikes in next month’s Lady Slipper. Until the article comes out in May, you can see the list of these hikes in this article from last month, Kick-off BotanyBlitz 2022 with an iNaturalist Tutorial Hike!

Our successful Wildflower Weekend 2022 and the other Wildflower Week activities would not have been possible without the hard work of so many folks. KNPS Vice President Heidi Brauneiter and her WW2022 committee put in many hours making Wildflower Weekend happen so well. Vanessa Voelker and Rachel Cook organized BotanyBlitz and the iNaturalist Tutorial hikes and were instrumental in getting so many folks participating this year. Thanks go to those 200 folks on iNaturalist that helped identify the many observations made during BotanyBlitz. We also have to thank the amazing botanists and naturalists who led the walks and hikes and answered our questions, as well as KNPS board members and volunteers who staffed the registration tables. Finally to our partners at Natural Bridge SRP, thank you for hosting the KNPS Wildflower Weekend for the 30th time. All of these folks came together to produce a fun and educational experience with Kentucky’s most beautiful native plants. Thank you.

Prior to the presentations on Saturday night, there was a short KNPS membership meeting where the results of the online election for our KNPS officers were announced. Officers for 2022-2024 are; President, Jeff Nelson, Vice-President, Heidi Braunreiter, Secretary, Kelly Watson, Treasurer, Steele McFadden, and Directors Wes Cunningham, Jen Koslow, Jess Slade, and David Taylor. I am honored and excited to be elected president of the Kentucky Native Plant Society and look forward to working closely with the other board members and the KNPS membership to continue to advance the KNPS mission; “to promote education, preservation, and protection of native plants and natural communities.“

A little bit about me. I was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in Sunnyvale, California. I received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara. My wife Liz, our son Aaron, and I moved from California to McCracken Co., Kentucky (Liz’s home), in 1987. After building a house on our 10 acres, we have spent the last 30+ years restoring the property from farmland to a native woodland. We have been members of the Kentucky Native Plant Society since the early 1990s and I have been on the Board of KNPS since 2017. Since 2019, Liz and I have shared responsibilities as Nature Preserve Monitors at Metropolis Lake SNP in McCracken Co. As lifelong amateur naturalists, we love exploring Kentucky and learning about the rich diversity of the Commonwealth’s many ecosystems.

I cannot end this message without a big, personal thank you to Tara Littlefield. Tara recruited me to serve on the Board in 2017. Her love of, and commitment to, the native plants and ecosystems of Kentucky has served as an inspiration to me and everyone who knows her. Tara’s service to the Kentucky Native Plant Society is long-standing, serving in many roles, most recently as President for the past five years. Although leaving the office of President, Tara remains on the Board as the Immediate Past President and as the Chair of the Plant Conservation Committee so we will continue to have the benefit of her skills and botanical knowledge. Thank you, Tara.

Beginning my two-year term as President of KNPS, I am confident that the Society will grow and continue to be a leader in promoting education about, appreciation for, and conservation of our native flora. If you have any thoughts about what KNPS can and should be doing going forward, or if you just have a question about our native plants, email me at jeff.53chevy@gmail.com .

Thank you — Jeff Nelson

By Joyce Fry

It’s spring now, but neither the oak (Quercus sp.) nor the white ash tree (Fraxinus americana) in our backyard are sprouting new growth; nor will they. Those trees are dead and are now called snags. Most people cut down dead trees, feeling that they have outlived their usefulness. I take issue with that! Let me explain.

When we first bought our house in the rural northern Franklin County, KY area, the oak was already a snag. Being avid birders, we noticed that its dead branches and trunk frequently hosted several interesting birds well within view of our picture window. We determined that the oak snag was far enough away from our house that it should not pose a hazard, so we elected not to cut it down. Instead, after many years of coaxing, we succeeded in training a trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans) to climb up its trunk nearly to its crown, about 40 feet.

Trumpet creeper, also known as Trumpet vine, is native to Kentucky. It sports lovely orange, red-orange to red tubular flowers from May through August. Ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) (Kentucky’s most common hummingbird species) visit the tubular flowers to feast on its nectar, and in the process, they cross-pollinate its flowers. A pretty good deal for a plant whose seeds, sap and leaves are toxic. This plant is also known as the “cow itch vine,” because contact with its leaves can cause contact dermatitis, apparently not to hummingbirds, though.

Many insects feed on this plant, including planthoppers, mealy bugs, scale and white flies, all in the order, Hemiptera, and produce “honeydew,” their sweet excrement on which ants feed. Insectivorous birds, and insect predator species are attracted to this microecosystem.

Another phenomenon we observed with Trumpet creeper was the delightful spectacle of Baltimore orioles (Icterus galbula) and summer tanagers (Piranga rubra) slicing open the flower tubes to consume  the nectar.  We enjoyed the kaleidoscope of orange, red and yellow of the birds and flowers all glowing in the sunshine. 

We’ve experienced the excitement of seeing numerous birds alight on the branches  of the oak snag, including great-horned owl (Bubo virginianus), bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), and turkey vulture (Cathartes aura). More commonly, though, American goldfinch (Spinus tristis), tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor), Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis), Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) and every Kentucky resident or migratory woodpecker species common to Kentucky use its branches in anticipation of their turn at the feeders below.

Although we don’t know what caused the oak tree’s death and rebirth as a snag, we watched in sadness as our very large and beautiful ash tree fell victim to the non-native emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis). Much of its once gray, rough diamond-shaped bark peeled off in huge chunks in the aftermath of the beetle’s larvae having fed on the tree’s phloem, killing the tree in the process. Phloem are the structures that transport sugars and protein from the leaves where they are produced, to the rest of the tree. It’s mostly bare, skeleton-like trunk bears numerous s-shaped scars from tunnels produced by the beetle larvae.

Prior to this infestation, the ash featured lavishly green compound leaves during the growing season, which turned a lovely reddish-purple in the fall. The fruit of the female white ash are seeds housed in a flat oar-shaped case, called a samara. Samarae are often referred to as “helicopter keys,” because when they fall from the tree, they swirl like a helicopter. Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus), Northern cardinal, squirrel (family Sciuridae) and mice (Mus spp,) feed on the seeds of the ash tree.

Although the EAB infestations have killed scores of Kentucky’s ash trees (it has been estimated that up to 10% of our forests were made up of ash tree species), remarkably, there is at least one silver-lining, i.e., they have left snags in their wake, offering animal accommodations, and harboring insects behind the still-clinging bark and crevices for insectivores. The populations of woodpecker species, white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), Carolina chickadee and tufted titmouse, and all cavity-nesting birds, have soared in our area.

“Speaking” of nest cavities, our ash snag possesses one that appears to be highly coveted. Over the span of several weeks one year, we observed a red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), and several red-bellied woodpeckers inspecting it. One red-bellied woodpecker (M. carolinus) we watched began renovating the cavity by throwing nesting material into it. He stopped renovation periodically to drum on the trunk near the hole, most likely to attract a female. Much to our surprise, a seemingly indignant flying squirrel (Glaucomys Volans) suddenly exited the hole, discarding the added nesting material and chasing the woodpecker around the trunk until she scared him off.

Although it may not be wise to leave every snag on your property, especially in an urban or suburban setting, think twice before having one removed. Even in death, trees can be an asset, as well as the source of much entertainment.