Kentucky Native Plant Society member Alan Abbott will be leading the second KNPS field trip since the start of the pandemic to Pine Creek Barrens Nature Preserve in Shepardsville. Owned by the Nature Conservancy, the 158-acre property was featured in Thomas Barnes’ book, Kentucky’s Last Great Places.
Pine Creek
This open woodland with a prairie-like ground cover hosts a diversity of native glade flora. Other natural communities at Pine Creek Barrens include the dry upland woods which surround the glade. On the southwest boundary, scenic Pine Creek flows through a beautiful mesic ravine forest lined with small limestone cliffs.
Barrens Silky Aster (Symphyotrichum pretense)
A number of rare or infrequent plants grow here, and most years, visitors can see Barrens Silky Aster (Symphyotrichum pretense), Great Plains Ladiestresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum), and Stiff Gentian (Gentianella quinquefolia) bloom in October.
At least eight rare and endangered plant species have been identified at the nature preserve, including the globally threatened glade cress (Leavenworthia exigua var. Laciniata), which has adapted to grow in small depressions on the exposed bedrock. This plant is found only in select areas in Bullitt and Jefferson counties.
Several years ago, KNPS adopted the policy of requiring preregistration for all activities (other than Wildflower Weekend) and for giving members the first opportunity to register for those activities. We send out emails to current members for all KNPS activities at least one week before the activity is announced to the general public. Participation in this trip was limited to 15 people and was quickly filled up by members. If you would like to get advance notification of future field trips, become a member of KNPS. If you join now, your membership will not expire until the end of 2022.
Ironweed, Vernonia gigantea. Photo credit: Theodore Webster, Common License.
August is time for the giants in the gardens to bloom. Of all the natives, these are my favorites and, ironweed was my first.
Your blooms mesmerized me and when I grew you,
your height fascinated me.
Farmers hate you. They can’t eradicate you with poison so,
they mow you down. A mere image of your true self.
You can be considered a bully. Nuisance is used
to describe you.
Not picky where you grow—fields,
pastures, roadsides, and in the urban garden at
the woodland edge. You are welcomed there, not a bully nor a nuisance.
Prevailing winds constantly at your back,
always standing tall.
The other giants with their issues,
requiring support, to stand tall.
Your presence reminds me year after year, how much
I love the colors of your blooms.
Intense in the sun; subdued in the shade.
Such a welcomed color amongst the other giants
in the urban garden.
You started the pursuit of always having your color
while yellow and white also still in bloom; from the beginning
of the garden season to the end; and, that love affair
started more than thirty-five years ago.
Perception—how it defines you.
David Taylor, Forest Service
Tall ironweed, Vernonia gigantea, is a member of the sunflower family, Asteraceae. In Kentucky, plants begin blooming in August, occasionally, late July, with some individuals blooming as late as mid-October. The plant has alternate leaves each up to 10 inches long and 2.5 inches wide. Stems are typically 5-6 feet tall but can reach 9-10 feet in bottomland. The purple flowers are small, only about ¼ inch long, but because 20-25 are clustered together a head, and 50 to several hundred heads occur in one inflorescence, the plant is showy. Many species of small bees and butterflies will feed on the nectar produced by the flowers. A large plant can produce 1,000 or more wind-blown seeds.
Tall ironweed is a clumpy plant producing multiple stems from each root system, which is extensive and tough, firmly anchoring the plant in the ground. A few caterpillars and beetles eat the leaves, but otherwise the plant is relatively resistant to herbivory. Once established in a field, especially if overgrazed, the plant spreads quickly, aided by bare soil patches, and general immunity from grazing. The plant is difficult to eradicate and is generally controlled by mowing. In a garden setting, it is wise to cut the inflorescence off once the flowers are finished blooming if you don’t want them to spread. Dispose of the old flowers in the trash to prevent spreading of seed.
Debra Parrish lives in the heart of downtown and spends a lot of time and expends a great deal of love on her urban native gardens. She frequently offers summer tours for gardening clubs and other native gardening organizations.
Did you know that the Kentucky Native Plant Society offers small grants to help defer the costs of botanical research, inventory and native plant restoration? Since 2012, KNPS has awarded $8,100 to students working in these areas. Another $750 was awarded in prior years. The total number of grants awarded in any given year is based on the number of proposals received, the quality of proposals and available funding. The graph below shows the kinds of projects that have been funded.
The second type of grant is new and is open to anyone. It will fund
1. native plant inventory, or
2. rare and native plant restoration.
Native plant inventory grants are limited to Kentucky locations and successful applicants will receive a maximum of $250. Rare and native plant restoration grants are awarded to applicants working with native Kentucky plants, preferentially those which are globally rare (G1, G2). Successful applicants will be awarded a maximum of $500. All rare and native plant restoration grants require coordination with the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves (OKNP) and the Kentucky Native Plant Conservation Alliance coordinators prior to application.
A grant proposal must include:
A current curriculum vitae;
A proposal (not to exceed two single-spaced typed pages) describing the proposed research and the role the grant would play in the research;
An itemized budget;
A letter of recommendation from the applicant’s major professor or project director; and
Indicate whether the grant request is for a student research grant, a native plant inventory grant or a rare and native plant restoration grant.
If the grant is for rare and native plant restoration, include a letter of support from OKNP.
Budget items typically funded include travel to research sites and supplies such as herbarium paper and lab consumables. No personnel time will be funded.
All Grant Proposals are due by October 15, 2021.
If you are interested in applying for any of the KNPS grants, visit the Grants page at the KNPS website. If, after reading the grants page, you have any questions, please email them to: grants@knps.org.
Volunteers Needed for Upcoming Sandstone Rockhouse Monitoring Project to help protect native plants, animals and archeological resources
Figure 1: Sandstone rockhouses in the Red River Gorge are home to many cultural and biological resources
The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves and U.S. Forest Service are seeking to partner with citizen scientists to monitor culturally and ecologically significant sandstone rockhouses and cliffline communities that occur in the Red River Gorge Geological Area. These communities contain many rare and endemic plants and animal species, as well as archeological resources that need your help! Volunteers must submit an application for review, and will be notified of selection in the fall of 2021. Training will be provided and volunteers will begin to help monitor and conserve their assigned rockhouse in 2022. Time commitment is estimated to be approximately 5 working days throughout the year, as well as email correspondence and other requirements listed below. Groups or individuals are welcome to apply.
Why are sandstone rockhouses and cliffline communities in the Red River Gorge Geological Area significant?
Ecology: Sandstone rockhouses are cave like recesses in sandstone cliffs formed by erosion. Dry by nature, they are almost completely sheltered from precipitation; getting water from windblown rain, waterfalls from above or ground water seepage through the sandstone. Compared to the surrounding conditions of the mixed mesophytic forest, rockhouses are warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, and have lower evaporation rates and higher humidity. Soils found in rockhouses are mostly low pH sand with high levels of some nutrients from saltpeter earth and prehistoric human activities. Due to these conditions, rockhouses have their own unique flora and fauna that include several rockhouse endemic species. Sandstone rockhouses are home to the Federally Delisted White-haired Goldenrod, a species that only occurs in the RRGGA.
Figure 2: OKNP technician surveys a sandstone rockhouse at the Red River Gorge
Cultural Heritage:
The structure of the rockhouses naturally provide protection from precipitation,
making them valuable as archeological sites. Artifacts and plant materials decompose in other conditions, but are well preserved in the dry, nitrate-rich soils of rockhouses.
Humans have been utilizing rockhouses for thousands of years, and leaving traces of their lives behind. Approximately 12,000 years ago, Native peoples used them as encampments, locations for special activities, bivouacs, and burial sites. Within the last several centuries, rockhouses have been used as dwellings, barns, campsites, schoolhouses, saltpeter mines, shelters for whiskey stills and more. In addition, faunal and flora remains found in rockhouses have helped archeologists better understand the development of agriculture in eastern North America.
What is the impact of recreation on clifflines and rockhouses?
Clifflines and rockhouses are extremely sensitive to human impacts, yet these locations have seen a continued surge in recreational use. In the last 10 years, visitation to the Red River Gorge Geological Area has increased by almost 40%. There has been extensive documentation of the area on social media, guidebooks, and outdoor websites that have increased visitation of hikers, campers, photographers, and other outdoorspeople. The RRGGA is also one of the most popular climbing destinations in the Eastern United States, therefore the rising popularity of rock climbing and bouldering across the country has led to an influx of visitors wishing to climb at “The Red.”
Increased and prolonged recreational presence in the rockhouse and cliffline communities can cause habitat loss and degradation, erosion, eradication of species, and loss of cultural resources. The growing recreational use has increased the need to monitor cliffline and rockshelter sites that are known to contain populations of rare plant and animal species, and/or heritage resources. The data from the monitoring will be used to ensure that appropriate mitigations are in place to protect these sensitive habitats and significant cultural sites.
How do I get involved?
First, check the list of basic Volunteer Requirements and see if this program is right for you:
Adopt a Rockshelter Program Volunteers must:
1. Have an interest in conserving and protecting biological and cultural resources.
2. Be willing to complete required training provided by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves and U.S. Forest Service. Training is being developed by OKNP, USFS and Dan Doursan, and will be provided to volunteers in 2022.
3. Be able to fulfill the time commitment required by the program. Adopting 1 rockshelter carries a 5-day commitment that will include training and site visits.
4. Be able to hike long distances on uneven terrain along designated and user defined trails.
5. Feel comfortable working with, or being willing to learn, a touchscreen tablet for data collection.
6. Be able to remove invasive species.
If the ARP is something you’d like to be involved with, please email naturepreserves@ky.gov to receive an application. OKNP and USFS staff will review all volunteer applications and contact those who have been admitted.
As summer is coming to a close, I have tried to be in the field botanizing around as much as possible. One of my favorite places to look around for plant life is the Miller-Welch Central Kentucky Wildlife Management Area located between Richmond and Berea. The area has been of great interest to me for the past three field seasons. Wildlife management areas are not the first place a botanist would venture to look for unexpected plant life. The purpose is for managing wildlife and the land managers do such a fantastic job at doing such. However, a favorable consequence to managing wildlife is often managing the plant life equally.
(Left) Location of the Central Kentucky Wildlife Management Area, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.
(Right) Picture from Central in powerline way, August 2021, Nick Koenig.
As I was trekking through a wet, mesic field following the powerlines, kept open by the managers, I was finding native plants left and right. Anglepod milkvine, butterfly milkweed, moonseed, asters, sedges galore, trumpet vine… the list could go on and on. But what caught my eye was the pink flower below. I had not ever encountered a species like this in Madison County before or ever. After some keying, I was perplexed, a native loosestrife. Whenever I hear loosestrife, I am usually in “plant-yanking” mode, ready to grab any invasive purple loosestrife insight. But this was not the case.
Winged Loosestrife (Lythrum alatum) from Central KY Wildlife Management Area, August 2021, Nick Koenig.
Winged Loosestrife or Lythrum alatum (alate translating to wings in Latin, similarly to how “escalate” means to raise) is a plant species in the Loosestrife family with strong wings on the stem and lacking hairs. The flowers are light pink with one or two from one axil and the leaves ranging from ovate to lanceolate, with the entire plant not going over three feet tall (Illinois Wildflowers). What was most unexpected about the find was its occurrence in Madison County, Kentucky. By using the website SERNEC (Southeast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections https://sernecportal.org/portal/), one can call on collections of a plant species to see when a plant was documented, where, and by who, along with many other details. Some species are kept disclosed for protecting the integrity of the population/species.
By making a query of all Lythrum alatum in Madison County, Kentucky, the results give rise to only one collection. On July 10, 1937, Mary Wharton (botanist-extraordinaire and in the Kentucky Native Plant Society’s Kentucky Botantist Hall of Fame) found the same species in an “open oak-hickory woods.”
Dr. Mary Wharton, Kentucky Native Plant Society Kentucky Botany Hall of Fame Profile.
University of Michigan Herbarium specimen label written by Dr. Mary Wharton, SERNEC Portal.
The specimen is stored in a herbarium (plant specimen repository) at the University of Michigan herbarium and pictured below.
Winged Loosestrife (Lythrum alatum) specimen from the University of Michigan Herbarium collected by Dr. Mary Wharton, SERNEC Portal.
Not only does the specimen hold the story of a wonderful Kentucky native plant, it holds the story of a botanist. Knowing roughly one month ago, 84 years ago, Dr. Wharton (founder of Floracliff Nature Sanctuary and author of multiple field guides) when she was at the age of 24, was too intrigued by a species of flowering plant enough to collect it and document its occurrence. The stories of plant species and plant collectors alike are stored in the specimens housed in herbaria.
On Saturday, July 31, 2021, for the first time since July of 2019, KNPS members were able to get out into the field as a group and explore our Commonwealth’s botanical diversity. Traveling to the Ballard Wildlife Management Area in Ballard Co., nine of us spent an enjoyable morning visiting a variety of wetland ecosystems that many Kentuckians never see.
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 that 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 forested parts of the WMA are mostly bottomland hardwood forest, another ecosystem that is somewhat uncommon in Kentucky.
Pale Indian plantain (Arnoglossum atriplicifolium)
The nine participants headed out in a three-vehicle caravan to visit several spots around the WMA. We were led by longtime WMA employees, Gerald Burnett and Richard Campbell. At each stop we got out and walked and found many native plants. At our first stop we spotted several nice stands of an uncommon native, pale Indian plantain (Arnoglossum atriplicifolium). We also saw several species of St. John’s wort (Hypericum spp.), downy skullcap (Scuttelaria incana), meadow beauty (Rhexia spp.), starry campion (Silene stellata), and several species of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants, including American bur-reed (Sparganium americanum), arrow arum (Peltandra virginica), and broadleaf arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia). Lots of buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) and both species of native Hibiscus, halberd-leaf rosemallow (H. laevis) and swamp rosemallow (H. moscheutos), were in abundance along the shores of the area’s lakes and sloughs.
Oneflower false fiddleleaf (Hydrolea uniflora)
At the second stop we explored both a wetland community and a bottomland forest. We saw several natives, a couple that are rare in Kentucky. In the wetland, we saw a nice patch of oneflower false fiddleleaf (Hydrolea uniflora) in full bloom. This genus, Hydrolea, has two species in Kentucky, this one and ovate false fiddleleaf (Hydrolea ovata). Both species are only found in a couple of counties in far western Kentucky, and were believed to be extirpated until 2006 when both were observed again. Read the post “From the Lady Slipper Archives: Hydroleas (the genus False Fiddleleaf) in Kentucky – Lost and Found” to learn more about these beautiful and rare species.
Snow squarestem (Melanthera nivea)
We also encountered several stands of snow squarestem (Melanthera nivea) just beginning to flower. This is another species that is rare in Kentucky, reported only from four counties along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; McCracken, Ballard, Carlisle, and Hickman.
Other species that were found in bloom in these habitats included sharpwing monkey flower (Mimulus alatus), butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), swamp milkweed (A. incarnata), aquatic milkweed (A. perennis), hairy mountian mint (Pycnanthemum verticillatum var. pilosum), cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), creeping burhead (Echinodorus cordifolius), and water parsnip (Sium suave).
Most of us are familiar with the non-native Asiatic dayflower (C. communis), that grows in gardens and along roadsides. However, many are not aware that Kentucky has three native dayflowers. We saw all three species of Kentucky’s native dayflowers in bloom during the field trip; white-mouth dayflower (C. erecta), Virginia dayflower (C. virginiana), and climbing dayflower (C. diffusa).
White-mouth dayflower (Commelina erecta)
Virginia dayflower (Commelina virginica)
Climbing dayflower (Commelina diffusa)
All Three of Kentucky’s Native Dayflowers
The day was a great start to getting back to in-person field trips. This exploration of an area of Kentucky that many people are unfamiliar with was a great example of the value of KNPS field trips for learning about our native plant communities.
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 one of Kentucky’s rarest genera, Hydrolea, first appeared in the fall of 2006, Vol. 21, 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.
As a current update to this article, Hydrolea uniflora, the one-flower false fiddleleaf, was observed in full flower at Ballard Wildlife Management Area during the field trip there on July 31, 2021. Read about the field trip and see an image of H. uniflora at the article about the trip; Field Trip to Ballard WMA.
Hydroleas (the genus False Fiddleleaf) in Kentucky – Lost and Found
by Deb White
Hydrolea uniflora photo from www.biosurvey.ou.edu
The two species of Hydrolea in the state have both been lost and found within the last few years! Both the ovate false fiddleleaf (Hydrolea ovata) and the one-flower false fiddleleaf (H. uniflora) were reported in the 1960’s to 80’s from several western counties. We had checked all the sites where these wetland plants were reported, and the sites appeared to be extirpated – for instance one had turned into a church. As soon as their ranks1 were changed to “Historic,” meaning they had not been reported for 20 years, they were both found in new places in western Kentucky. Robert Dunlap, a budding botanist and all-around naturalist, found a nice population of H. uniflora in Winford Wildlife Management Area. Julian Campbell reported that H. ovata is found at a wetland site within the Paducah city limits.
Hydrolea ovata photo from www.biosurvey.ou.edu
These are both wetland herbs with blue flowers. H.uniflora forms a rooted mat of creeping decumbent (laying close to the ground rather than erect) stems in shallow open pools in wetlands. The plants are usually less than a foot tall if that and generally bloom in the late summer. H.ovata is much taller,up to 3-4 feet, when it blooms and hard to miss if in flower. It has little spines at the leaf axils and has many branches.
Both of these species occur along the edges of bottomland hardwood swamps and marshy openings in western Kentucky. They are distributed in the southeast United States and into Texas and Missouri. Kentucky is at the northern limit of their ranges, not surprising since this is generally a genus of warm climates.
The number of species that become historic and ultimately extinct in the state give us some insight into the rate of loss of our native flora. To date, Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission lists 61 historic plants for the state. It is thrilling to find a plant that has not been seen for 20 years and re-assuring to know that the species continues to find its way in our changing world. In fact I am sure there is more Hydrolea out there to be found. If you are interested in knowing what rare plants, including those that are historic, occur in your area please visit our web site, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, and visit the Rare Plant Database for the listing for your county or to our rare plant website.
1 Each plant in the Kentucky flora receives a rank expressing its status in the state, from rare to common, historic or even extinct.
Update to the article: As was mentioned in the introduction above, H. uniflora was observed during the KNPS field trip to Ballard WMA on July 31, 2021. Here are a few images of H. uniflora from that trip.
