The Lady Slipper Archives - Page 23 of 40 - Kentucky Native Plant Society

Follow a growing trend and organize your own seed swap

A variety of seeds grown and collected from native species, at just one of the regional mini-swaps in 2021. Photo: Louisville Central region swap host Deany Collard.

By Anne Milligan

When I was asked to write a summary of our Kentucky native plants and seeds swaps in Louisville, Kentucky, I was excited to share, but I also felt a bit of trepidation. How does one adequately describe a project that seems to have tapped a societal nerve, so to speak, and taken on a life of its own over the past few years? With three swaps under our belts, I want to share how this project began, and just a hint of how it is evolving, as more people come on board. I’m hopeful that our experience will help others establish swaps in their own communities.

2010

Stephen Brown and I moved to Louisville after having lived in the middle of the woods for three years in “employee housing” at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville, Kentucky. We loved the woods so much that we decided to look for a house surrounded by trees. We moved to a property abutting some woodland acreage and began our 12-year creation of a Kentucky native plants sanctuary.

2010-2019

That first decade involved a whole lot of physical labor on our part, creating a series of connected rain gardens flowing gradually downhill across our back, front and side yards. These gardens (plus some drier areas) are now populated with over 80 Kentucky native flowers, ferns, shrubs, and trees.

From the very beginning, we have carefully documented the project in photos and daily journal logs at Let the Earth Breathe, Inc. Please refer to our 2021 book Let the Earth Breathe for a more detailed narration of our home project, what we’ve learned so far, and some delightful surprises we encountered along the way.

2019

When we had established about 60 varieties of native species, we realized that we were running out of room to expand our “yarden” and decided to form a Facebook native seed swap group to share some of the abundance. We had a grand total of six people at our very first swap meeting in November of 2019. We were small but mighty though, because the Facebook group began to expand dramatically in a very short time after this swap.

2020

As you probably know, the Covid pandemic forced many people into quarantine, which catapulted many of us into home landscaping projects. Our annual swap was cancelled. We then divided the original group into five regional “socially distanced,” mini-swaps that covered most of the Louisville area. Besides our own swap in the southeast region of Louisville, four leaders stepped up to host their own regional swaps.

A lot of seeds were exchanged by mail and porch pick-ups. Our primary inspiration for creating home native plants sanctuaries (or “yardens”) was, and still is, Dr. Douglas Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home. Another very helpful book for beginning native gardeners is Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky by the late Dr. Thomas Barnes.

2021

Unique seed display from a regional swap group.

On November 6, 2021, regional swaps took place again at the hosts’ homes. I think everyone will agree that the regional swaps are here to stay, because smaller communities are developing in local neighborhoods within these regional swaps. Together, many of us are gaining more courage to remove those tidy, but unsustainable, grassy lawns and replace them with landscaped native plants, shrubs, and trees.

November 27, 2021

Three weeks after the regional swaps, our annual “citywide” swap took place at the Louisville Nature Center. We held this citywide swap to further distribute the extra seeds, plants, and tree saplings that were left over from the regional swaps. As I posted in our Facebook groups after this citywide swap, “I have never seen such a marvelously biodiverse collection of native seeds, plants, and trees in my entire life.” The people were equally diverse by age, gender, culture, and even in the unique ways we packaged our seeds.
Labeling the seed packages with name, bloom time, and year collected, was stressed as very important in the weeks preceding the swaps. Some of the species were even brought over the river from New Albany, Indiana. From 1:00-4:00 PM, a steady, but never overwhelming flow of people swapped native seeds and plants.

We organized the seeds by placing tables in a large semi-circle according to the bloom times of individual seeds and plants, beginning with early spring ephemerals, all the way around to late summer and fall. We had to add extra tables to handle the generosity and abundance.

All of the regional hosts were present to greet our visitors, many of whom were surprised that all of these seed packages, plants, native grasses, and trees were free. And yet that is part of the magic of what I feel will become an annual event. My vision is that our swaps will always, first and foremost, be neighborly and welcoming, without the trappings and competition of buying and selling.

I hope that, as you read this, you will consider forming your own swap group, and hold fast to a primary rule, which is to share only species native to your region. If you are a Facebook group administrator, please know that a successful swap group also requires that you keep people engaged throughout the year, sharing books, articles, and so on and that you clarify again and again that our pollinators depend on native species for their very survival, and thus, human survival on the planet.

Most of all, keep it fun. As Margaret Shea, of Dropseed Native Plants Nursery, once told us, “It’s fun to put things in the ground.” And it really is.

Citywide swap on Nov. 27, 2021.
Photo: Deany Collard.

Final Notes

On a personal level, I am happy to say that these swaps have given many participants a much-needed social connection with people who care about our planet and love gardening. We need these connections, sometimes more than we need extra money or material goods. Making positive social connections around native-plant gardening keeps us well and helps strengthen our resolve to free ourselves of our addiction to non-native grassy lawn care and help restore our planet to its natural goodness.

Lastly, please consider donating to the non-profit foundation created by Anne Milligan and Stephen Brown called “Let the Earth Breathe, Inc.” to help fund other small native species projects around our area. You can do so by visiting Let the Earth Breathe, Inc..

Happy planting!

Anne Milligan is an artist, singer/musician, and landscape designer. She lives in Louisville, KY with her husband, author and historian Stephen A. Brown.

Unusual naturally occurring variant or escape from cultivation?

Lonicera sempervirens f. sulphurea, a yellow-flowered form of the red native honeysuckle

By Alicia Bosela, owner of Ironweed Native Plant Nursery

The native species of trumpet honeysuckle is a deciduous woody vine that typically grows to about 15 feet. It produces red tubular flowers with a yellow throat and is pollinated by hummingbirds and a variety of insects. Ornamental uses include trellises, fences and as a ground cover. Trumpet honeysuckle differs from native yellow honeysuckle (Lonicera flava) in that L. flava is not known to occur in Kentucky and has distinctly different shaped flowers.

Yellow trumpet honeysuckle — *Lonicera sempervirens* f. *sulphurea*; Photo Credit A Fothergill

*Lonicera sempervirens* f. *sulphurea* , @ Tara Littlefield

While much of our wild flora is at risk from various human activity, the beautiful, red-flowered trumpet honeysuckle can still be found if one is doggedly persistent in searching. One such pursuer of native plants, Neville Crawford, located what was clearly a trumpet honeysuckle that was completely yellow and appeared to be growing in natural habitat within Mahr Park in Madisonville, Kentucky. John Swintosky, Senior Landscape Architect at Louisville Metro Public Works, discovered a yellow trumpet honeysuckle growing in Iroquois Park at least 15 years ago and confirmed its presence again in September 2021. This yellow form was reported in Iroquois Park in 1945 by P.A. Davies. Botanist Julian Campbell also encountered the yellow form in Boyle County, Kentucky.

Julian Campbell and Tara Littlefield under an arbor of the regular red trumpet honesuckle and the yellow variety that Julian collected from Boyle county, at Julian’s Botanical Garden in Lexington, Kentucky, May 2021. Photo by Christy Edwards.

Were these plants naturally occurring color variants of the red trumpet honeysuckle or an escape from cultivation? Britton and Brown’s Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States mentions the yellow form as early as 1913. The yellow form has been noted for sale in catalogues as early as 1938 and is likely “within the range of phenotypic plasticity for the species,” according to the New York Botanical Garden (personal communication). Therefore, this is almost certainly a natural yellow form of the typically red trumpet honeysuckle. How interesting!

Editor’s Note: You can see the yellow variety at Salato Native Wildlife Education in Frankfort, Kentucky at the headquarters of Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources in the backyard exhibit.

Alicia Bosela owns Ironweed Native Plant Nursery in Columbia Kentucky, a certified woman-owned business. Before opening her own nursery, she was the Assistant Director of Clay Hill Memorial Forest Environmental Education Center. You can contact her at www.ironweednursery.com.

Thank You to Our Members!

**^{2019 KNPS Membership Meeting and Seed & Plant Swap}**

Members are the lifeblood of all volunteer organizations and the Kentucky Native Plant Society is no exception. The Society depends on our members to accomplish our mission of “promoting education, preservation, and protection of native plants and natural communities in the Commonwealth“. Your dues and participation in KNPS’s activities are essential to this mission. We sincerely thank you for your support.

We currently have 471 members of KNPS. In 2021, we had 150 new members join the Society and 85 members renewed their membership. We also have 165 Life Members, 5 of whom became members in 2021.

KNPS Life Members Who Joined in 2021

Elizabeth Baldwin
Alan Chewning
Talitha Hunt
Pep Peppiatt
Michael Tain

There are many benefits of being a member of the Kentucky Native Plant Society. Education about Kentucky’s native plants is one of the Society’s primary missions. The Society fulfills this mission through a variety of learning opportunities. Each year, knowledgeable leaders take members on field trips conducted in all parts of the state. Members see special plants and visit unique and interesting natural areas. Field trips are typically limited to 10-20 participants and members are given the opportunity to sign up for these trips before they are opened to the general public. The Society also periodically conducts workshops and symposiums on native plant studies and native plant identification. Workshops are narrowly focused, with a single instructor. Symposiums generally cover a broad range of topics with multiple presenters. Again members are given the opportunity to register for these events before they are opened to the general public.

The preservation and conservation of Kentucky’s native plants and plant communities is another part of the Society’s mission. Through activities ranging from the propagation and restoration of rare native species through the organized removal of invasive species, KNPS members help to preserve and protect our native ecosystems.

We have two membership meetings a year that include programs with special speakers, presentations, and hikes. The spring Wildflower Weekend is generally at Natural Bridge State Resort Park and the Fall Membership Meeting is held at various sites around Kentucky.

In 2020 and 2021 most of our in-person activities were cancelled or curtailed due to the pandemic. The KNPS Board is working to make 2022 one of our most exciting and productive years yet. Planning is already taking place for an in-person, Wildflower Weekend on April 8, 9, & 10 at Natural Bridge SRP as well as field trips, workshops, and conservation projects. Watch the Lady Slipper for announcements of these activities.

If you have any questions about membership or if you would like to comment, or help out with KNPS activities, just shoot us an email at KYPlants@knps.org

Become a KNPS Member or Renew Your Membership

Recovering the globally rare Kentucky Clover in the Inner Bluegrass Region

By: Tara Littlefield

Long term monitoring of Kentucky Clover in Franklin County @T. LIttlefield

Big news for native clover conservation in the Bluegrass State! Several years of conservation collaboration has resulted in the first transplants of the globally rare Kentucky Clover back into the Bluegrass Woodlands this fall! This endangered clover was discovered (2010) and described (2013) recently and was known from only two privately owned limestone woodlands in the Inner bluegrass of Kentucky. Since its discovery, the Kentucky clover had disappeared from both sites despite annual monitoring and management efforts conducted by Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves Botanist Tara Littlefield and KDFWR biologist Joe Lacefield. Luckily, seed collection and propagation efforts were successful due to our collaborative efforts with Valerie Pence, Kristine Lindsey, and Mairead Kennedy from the Cincinnati zoo CREWs plant program, among many other partners, and the first batch of Kentucky Clover plants was transferred to OKNP in order to transplant into high quality, managed limestone woodlands.

Mairead Kennedy and Valerie Pence present propagated Kentucky Clover Plants at CREW @T. Littlefield

After several years of managing transplant sites for removal of invasive species such as bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), OKNP staff and partners transplanted 75 Kentucky clover plants back into the original Franklin county site as well as transplanted new populations into 3 additional protected high-quality natural areas in Franklin county. OKNP botanists and partners will be monitoring the success of these transplants over the next several years and conducting quantitative studies on how best to manage for this rare clover and its unique limestone woodland habitat.

The power of partnership is key to conserving rare plants and the collaborative approach of the Kentucky Plant Conservation Alliance has made these recovery efforts possible. if you would like to help with these or other plant conservation alliance projects, please contact tara.littlefield@ky.gov.

Frost Flowers: Neither flowers nor frost!

by Jeff Nelson, KNPS Board Member

Get ready and be observant on these cold mornings. We are now entering the time of year when we will begin seeing one of Nature’s loveliest and most evanescent phenomenons in our region; Frost Flowers.

What are Frost Flowers?

Frost flowers are thin ribbons of ice that form on the stems of a few species of native plants. Water from the roots is drawn up the stems (either as part of the plant’s natural transportation system or through capillary action) and expands as it freezes, breaking the stem walls and creating a flow of ice. As the ice forms, more water freezes, forcing out ribbons of thin ice . Other names for these structures are “ice flowers”, “ice ribbons”, “ice fringes”, “ice filaments”, and “rabbit ice”.

Conditions Needed for Frost Flowers to Form

Frost flowers form only when certain very specific conditions all come together:

Air temperatures must be below freezing (usually below 30°).
There should be little to no wind.
Ground temperatures must still be above freezing.
There must be some degree of soil moisture.
They only form on particular species of plants.

If conditions are right, the same plants can produce multiple frost flowers in a season, starting as early as November and producing frost flowers as late as early February. Usually the first frost flowers of the year will extend quite a ways up the stem, without extending out very far, as the entire stem splits. By the end of the season, when the stems are completely shredded, the frost flowers come out from the very base of the plant.

What Plants Produce Frost Flowers?

Worldwide, there are roughly 30 species of plants that produce frost flowers. In our region there are three native species that typically produce frost flowers. The two most common are white crownbeard, a.k.a. frostweed (Verbesina virginica) and common dittany (Cunila origanoides). A third species, that is mainly in wet areas, is marsh fleabane (Pluchea camphorata). I have heard that frost flowers sometimes appear on species of sage (Salvia) but I have never seen that and don’t know for sure what species of sage may produce frost flowers.

**Frostweed (Verbesina virginica)**
Perennial herb, 3-7 ft. tall with winged stems. Leaves are alternate, broadly lanceolate, 4-8 in. long, with winged petioles. Flowers August – October

**Dittany (*Cunila origanoides*)**
Semi-woody perennial, 12-18 in. tall with a strong odor. Leaves are opposite, oval, 1-1 1/2 in. long. Flowers August – October

**Marsh Fleabane (*Pluchea camphorata*)**
Short lived perennial, 2-5 ft. tall with a camphor like odor. Leaves are alternate, broadly lanceolate, 3-10 in. long. Flowers August – September

Grow Your Own Frost Flowers

Although it is always exciting to find frost flowers in the “wild” another option for folks is to plant one of the natives that produce this phenomena in the yard. My frostweed patch came from a single plant that volunteered in the front yard about 6 years ago. It has reseeded itself and now many others have sprouted from the seeds of the original. On cold mornings I can now just look out the front window and see the frost flowers.

2021 Fall Member Meeting (virtual)

On Saturday, Oct. 23, KNPS held a virtual Fall Member meeting. The meeting was a review of what the Society has done in the past year and we discussed upcoming activities for the rest of 2021 and for 2022. View the full meeting here.

Roadsides As Vital Habitat: An Old Idea Is Getting Its Due

By Tony Romano, OKNP botanist/Conservation Coordinator

Figure 1: A remnant grassland with eastern whiteflower beardtongue (Penstemon tenuiflorus) in Logan County

Grasslands are an increasingly rare plant community type in Kentucky and the southeastern United States. Kentucky has often been depicted as a continuous forest, but we now understand that grasslands (defined broadly here to include prairie, savanna, barrens, and woodland communities) were once much more widespread throughout the state. Estimates of pre-settlement grassland communities in Kentucky range from 2.5 to 3 million acres. These grasslands are now nearly gone, with less than 1 percent of natural prairie and barrens remaining today in Kentucky (Abernathy et al. 2010). Much of this loss can be attributed to direct conversion of habitat through agricultural and urban development. The cessation of historical disturbances such as fire and grazing by large herds of animals has allowed the remaining grasslands to be degraded and slowly converted into forests by woody succession.

Figure 2: Purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens), state watch list species, with great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele).

Figure 5: Ecologist and writer Aldo Leopold. Courtesy of the Aldo Leopold Foundation and University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives

Aldo Leopold, a name that looms large in ecology, recognized over 70 years ago that roadsides were some of the last bastions of the mid-west tallgrass prairie in Wisconsin and Illinois. Even in Leopold’s time, most of the tallgrass prairie in the mid-west was already lost to the same processes that have diminished Kentucky’s grasslands. A Sand County Almanac, a collection of Leopold’s essays published posthumously in 1949, is a seminal work of ecological and philosophical writing that continues to influence the thinking of ecologists and conservationists to this day. While re-reading Almanac this past winter, I was struck by two essays that had direct bearing on the topic of this article. In Prairie Birthday, Leopold describes a remnant prairie tucked in the corner of a cemetery which borders a highway. He describes a stand of compass plant (Silphium laciniatum), perhaps the last population in that county, that blooms each July in that cemetery. Sadly, the fence separating the prairie from the road is eventually removed and the Silphium is mowed. Leopold laments that “this is one little episode in the funeral of the native flora, which in turn is one episode in the funeral of the floras of the world.”

Recognizing that things don’t need to be this way, Leopold continues “…every highway is bordered by an idle strip as long as it is; keep cow, plow, and mower out of these idle spots, and the full native flora … could be part of the normal environment of every citizen.”

In a later essay, Illinois Bus Ride, Leopold describes the vestiges of native plants and animals that he observes out the window of a bus traveling through Illinois. He notes that “In the narrow thread of sod between the shaved banks and toppling fences grow the relics of what once was Illinois: the prairie.” The foresight of these essays, that roadside remnants would become vital for grassland conservation, is truly astounding.

Figure 6: Newly discovered roadside population of barrens silky aster (*Symphyotrichum pratense*)(G4/S3).

In recent years, roadsides and utility right-of-ways have been increasingly recognized by ecologists and land managers for their potential conservation value. Research has shown that roadsides can provide important habitat for many pollinating insects, including at-risk species like the monarch butterfly (Hopwood 2008). Because they are maintained in an open, grass dominated state, roadsides can also contain remnants of native grassland communities that support diverse and sometimes rare plant species. Importantly, research shows that intact, high-quality, grasslands provide some of the best habitat for pollinators due to the abundance and diversity of plant species that occur in these communities (Ries et al. 2001). In other words, if we can protect high-quality roadside grasslands, we will also be providing vital habitat to insect populations. Nationwide, approximately 10 million acres of roadside right-of-ways are managed by state transportation departments (Forman et al. 2003). If successfully managed for native plant species, ten million acres is a tremendous amount of potential pollinator and grassland habitat.

Fortunately, Leopold’s old idea has gained traction. At the federal level, an important 2014 Presidential Memorandum addressed concerns over the monarch butterfly and declining populations of important pollinating insects. The memo directed federal agencies to increase or improve pollinator habitat nationwide (White House 2014). The memo additionally directed the Federal Department of Transportation to work with state departments of transportation to promote pollinator friendly practices. In accordance with this memo, the Federal Highway Administration researched and published several documents outlining best management practices (BMPs) and restoration techniques for managing roadside right-of-ways for native plants and pollinating insects (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2016).

Figure 8: OKNP’s progress so far on roadside pollinator habitat and grassland surveys

Figure 9: Appalachian rosinweed (*Silphium wasiotense*) a globally rare plant (G3/S that thrives on roadsides.

In the Commonwealth, the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves (OKNP) and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) have partnered on a 5-year project to survey all of the state maintained roads for high-quality pollinator and grassland habitat. KYTC maintains approximately 31,000 miles of roadside right-of-way which includes the interstates, US highways, and all state highways. Surveys began in 2020, and so far our botanists have surveyed over 13,000 miles of road in over 40 counties. We have evaluated over 200 sites for pollinator habitat and have identified over 30 high-quality grasslands. We also identified over 20 additional sites that do not necessarily meet high-quality grassland criteria, but still provide important habitat for certain rare plant species like the Appalachian Rosinweed (Silphium wasiotense). This Silphium is a globally rare species (G3/S3), endemic to Kentucky and Tennessee, that thrives on forest edges along roads in eastern Kentucky. In line with the goals of the Kentucky Pollinator Protection Plan (Kentucky Department of Agriculture 2019), once important sites are identified, we are working with KYTC to modify existing management to support and benefit these grassland communities and rare plant habitats. We believe this work will help preserve the full native flora of Kentucky.

Now, there is a second old idea in Leopold’s essays that I would like to briefly touch on if the reader will permit it. In addition to his concern over the retreating prairie, Leopold was once again ahead of his time when he observed what we would now call “plant blindness” in his contemporaries. In Illinois Bus Ride he comments that “No one in the bus sees these relics. A worried farmer … looks blankly at the lupines, lespedezas, or Baptisias … He does not distinguish them from the parvenu [exotic] quackgrass in which they grow.” Leopold continues “Were I to ask him the name of that white spike of pea-like flowers hugging the fence, he would shake his head. A weed, likely.” In Prairie Birthday he states the issue directly “We grieve only for what we know. The erasure of Silphium from western Dane County is no cause for grief if one knows it only as a name in a botany book.”

Figure 10: “…that white spike of pea-like flowers” isn’t a weed, its white wild indigo (*Baptisia leucantha*)!

Figure 12: Tony Romano, OKNP botanist, at a newly found and highly diverse roadside prairie.

Coined in 1998 by botanists Elisabeth Schussler and James Wandersee the term “plant blindness” refers to “the inability to see or notice the plants in one’s own environment” (Allen 2003). Plant blindness among the general public diminishes peoples understanding, interest, and connection to nature. Left untreated, plant blindness can result in declines in funding for plant biology education, research, and conservation initiatives. One of the primary missions of KNPS is to educate the public about plants and alleviate plant blindness. It is my hope that OKNP’s roadside habitat project will contribute to the visibility of native plants and spark interest in learning about and conserving our native flora.

One way that readers could help our efforts is to take a look at your local backroads. OKNP’s roadside survey project is limited to state maintained roads and generally excludes county and local roads. Please join our inaturalist project and help us document important habitat by adding your observations of roadside native plants to the project at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/kentucky-roadside-native-plants.

References:

Abernathy, G., D. White, E. L. Laudermilk, and M. Evans, editors. 2010. Kentucky’s Natural Heritage: An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY., USA.

Allen, W. 2003. Plant Blindness. BioScience. 53(10).

Forman, R. T. T., D. Sperling, J.A. Bissonette, A. P. Clevenger, C.D. Cutshall, V.H. Dale, L. Fahrig, R. France, C. R. Goldman, K. Heanue, J.A. Jones, F.J. Swanson, T. Turrentine, and T.C. Winter. 2003. Road Ecology: Science and Solutions. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Hopwood, J. 2008. The contribution of roadside grassland restorations to native bee conservation. Biological Conservation. 141.

Kentucky Department of Agriculture. 2019. Kentucky Pollinator Protection Plan. Available at: https://www.kyagr.com/statevet/documents/OSV_Bee_KY-Pollinator-Pro-Plan.pdf. Accessed: October 2021.

Ries, L., Debinski, D.M., and M.L. Wieland. 2001. Conservation value of roadside prairie restoration to butterfly communities. Conservation Biology. 15(2).

U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. 2016. Pollinators and Roadsides: Best Management Practices for Managers and Decision Makers. Available: https://www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/env_topics/ecosystems/Pollinators_Roadsides/BMPs_pollinators_roadsides.pdf. Accessed: October 2021.

White House Office of Press Secretary. 2014. “2014 Pollinator Presidential Memo.” Available: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/pollinators/presidential-memo.htm. Accessed: October 2021.