Coming Together to Discuss Current Botany Projects, Conservation, and Collaboration in Kentucky and Beyond
Missouri Ironweed (Vernonia missurica), West Kentucky WMA, McCracken Co., July 29, 2022
KNPS will be hosting our annual, virtual, Botanical Symposium on Thursday, January 26th, from 9AM-11:30PM EST. For several years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium in the fall/winter with a goal of bringing together professionals, citizen scientists, academics, gardeners and students in order to learn about what’s going on in the world of Kentucky Botany. Everyone interested in the native plants of Kentucky is welcome to watch the Symposium and there is no charge for this event. The Symposium will be recorded and will be made available online if you are unable to attend.
We are currently working on lining up presenters and developing the topics for the Symposium. Watch The Lady Slipper for details as they become available. In the meantime, you might want to watch the presentations from the 2020 Botanical Symposium and the 2021 Botanical Symposium. If you have any questions, shoot us an email at KYPlants@knps.org
Save the Date! April 14th-16th, 2023at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park
Cumberland Falls. Photo: H. Braunreiter
Exciting news! Next year’s KNPS Wildflower Weekend date has been set for April 14th – 16th, 2023! For over 30 years, Kentucky Native Plant Society has partnered with Natural Bridge State Resort Park to offer guided hikes to explore Kentucky’s rich natural history and resources in the Red River Gorge. This coming year, Kentucky State Parks has offered to host our annual Wildflower Weekend at another of Kentucky’s beautiful state parks: Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. We are excited to hike new trails, see new wildflowers, and increase access to this event for members in a different part of the state. We hope you will join us and other nature lovers, families, community scientists, amateur naturalists, and professional botanists from across the Commonwealth, to explore the beauty and diversity of our native plants in April.
The event will include guided hikes through beautiful natural areas throughout the weekend, a Friday evening Friends & Members Social, and Saturday evening presentations.
The week prior to Wildflower Weekend, KNPS will be hosting our third annual week-long state-wide BotanyBlitz on iNaturalist from April 8th-15th. This week-long BotanyBlitz allows us to broaden our spring wildflower scope to the entire state of Kentucky and allows us to highlight natural areas across the commonwealth! If you work/volunteer at a natural area in Kentucky and would like to partner with us to host an iNaturalist hike at your site to kick off the BotanyBlitz week, please send an email to: WildflowerWeekend2023@knps.org
Also, if you would like to get involved and help plan this event, please contact: WildflowerWeekend2023@knps.org
To learn more information about Cumberland Falls SRP, click here.
Join with other KNPS members and friends for our first, in-person fall meeting since 2019. Our 2022 Fall Meeting will be held 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 walks in the afternoon to look at some of the plants and plant 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.
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!
by Heidi Braunreiter, KNPS Vice President & Jeff Nelson, KNPS President
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.
Wildflower Walks
Beginning at noon on Friday and ending Sunday morning, fourteen wildflower walks, led by some of the best botanists in the country, explored the amazing diversity of the plant communities in Natural Bridge SRP and the Red River Gorge. Here’s some shots from the walks.
Carolina Vetch (Vicia carolina)
Red trillium (Trillium erectum)
Search for sweet pinesap.
Sweet pinesap (Monotropsis odorata)
Striped wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata)
Virginia pennywort (Obolaria virginica)
Bishop’s cap (Mitella diphylla)
Members & Friends Friday Evening Campfire
Woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata)
Trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens)
Downy serviceberry(Amelanchier arborea)
Lichen walk
Cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor)
Long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata)
Rock Bridge Trail
Discussions about next year’s Wildflower Weekend 2023 are already happening. Dates and the location are not set yet, but be thinking about the first half of April as the general time-frame. If you have any thoughts about how the event could be made better, we would love to hear from you. If you would like to lead or co-lead a walk next year, let us know. KYPlants@knps.org.
For over 30 years the Kentucky Native Plant Society, in partnership with Natural Bridge State Resort Park, has held a Wildflower Weekend at the park, offering wildflower hikes, as well as evening presentations. In 2020, due to COVID-19, we were forced to cancel Wildflower Weekend for the first time ever. Last year, with the pandemic still disrupting in-person activities, we all participated in a virtual Wildflower Week.
This year we are incredibly excited to be going back to an in-person Wildflower Weekend, April 8th-10th at Natural Bridge State Resort Park. This year’s Wildflower Week will be a hybrid of in-person and online activities. The week prior to Wildflower Weekend, we will be hosting an online, week-long BotanyBlitz on iNaturalist from April 2nd-9th.
Wildflower Weekend 2022 at Natural Bridge SRP
KNPS’ 2022 Wildflower Weekend is scheduled for April 8, 9, & 10. The weekend will offer wildflower hikes Friday and Saturday, led by some of the best botanists in the state. These hikes will explore the region’s rich natural history and resources in the state park and the Red River Gorge. Friday evening there will be a campfire social gathering at the group campsite near the Middle Fork Campground to meet your fellow native plant enthusiasts. Our Saturday night the keynote speaker will be Mike Homoya, former Indiana State Botanist/Plant Ecologist and author of numerous excellent botanical field guides. His presentation is titled, “Rare Plant and Natural Communities along the Ohio River, from Cincinnati to the Mississippi River.”
We are still in the process of lining up folks for the wildflower hikes. We are also looking for folks to help the hike leaders so that we can allow for more people on each hike. If you are interested in leading or helping on a hike, please send us an email at WildflowerWeekend2022@knps.org.
This event is open to the public and kid-friendly. Admission is $10 for adults, $3 for ages 13-17, and free for ages 12 & under.
As COVID-19 will still be a concern, we will be making every effort to minimize potential exposure for everyone:
Pre-registration: attendees will be able pre-register for the event as well as the guided hikes. This will better help us make arrangements for social distancing, as well as reduce crowding at hikes. Pre-registration will be opened online several weeks before Wildflower Weekend. Members of KNPS will be allowed to register before the registration is opened to the general public.
Meet-up locations for hikes: each hike will have a separate designated meeting point outside of the lodge, and we ask that everyone head straight to those outdoor locations rather than congregating together in the lodge lobby.
Social distancing: as much as possible, we will keep our group interactions outdoors. However for the Saturday evening presentations in the Woodland Center, we will reduce the number of chairs and spread them out so folks can easily socially distance.
Masks: in all cases, we will abide by the public health rules of our host, Natural Bridge SRP. To that end, we request that folks wear masks when indoors.
We appreciate your help in keeping this event as safe as it can be!
BotanyBlitz 2022 on iNaturalist
Leading up to Wildflower Weekend will be our week long BotanyBlitz, which will run from Saturday, April 2, through Saturday, April 9, and be hosted on the iNaturalist website. A BotanyBlitz is a community-science event that focuses on finding and identifying as many plant species as possible within a designated location and time period. At the end of the week, the observations of all participants will be tallied and awards given for Most Species Observed and Most Observations.
Beginning on Saturday, April 2, we are encouraging everyone to visit parks and natural areas throughout the Commonwealth, to find and photograph native plants (with an emphasis on those in bloom), and upload them to our BotanyBlitz project. Expert botanists and people with a keen identifying eye will be watching the observations roll in and can help with ID tips and tricks, so if you love wildflowers but aren’t always sure how to identify them, this project is definitely for you!
If you are interested in participating in this community science project but are unfamiliar with iNaturalist, we can help. On Saturday, April 2, at the beginning of the KNPS Wildflower Week BotanyBlitz, several iNaturalist tutorial hikes will be held at parks across Kentucky. These hikes will be lead by local botanizers who are also experienced iNaturalist users, who will demonstrate the basics of the app. Groups will then set out on an easy nature walk to practice uploading iNat observations, troubleshoot questions when possible, and of course, admire the wildflowers. We will open registration for these walks in early March. Members of KNPS will be allowed to register before the registration is opened to the general public. In the meantime, make sure to download the iNaturalist app and create a user account!
We have set up a page for Wildflower Weekend 2022 & BotanyBlitz 2022 where we will post the most current information about the events over the next several weeks. Be sure to visit the page and bookmark it!
If you have any questions about Wildflower Weekend or the BotanyBlitz, send us an email at WildflowerWeekend2022@knps.org Hope to see you in April.
“Coming Together to Discuss Current Botany Projects: Conservation and Collaboration in Kentucky and Beyond”
On Wednesday, December 8, KNPS held our second virtual Botanical Symposium. Close to 90 folks were able to attend online to hear and see several presentations about our native plants and plant communities. We know that there are many who would have liked to participate, but were not able to do so. Here are videos of all of the presentations.
