America’s favorite, Lobelia cardinalis

By Susan Harkins


Roger Tory Peterson described this midsummer bloomer as America’s favorite flower, and with good reason. Its blooms are an intense scarlet, which makes it attractive to both us and hummingbirds. You’ll hear Kentucky gardeners refer to Lobelia cardinalis as cardinal flower and red lobelia. Supposedly the name comes from the vestments worn by Roman Catholic cardinals; still others say it’s named for our state bird, the cardinal. The color is spectacular, regardless, as the blooms reflect one of the deepest, truest reds to be found in nature.

With all this natural beauty comes an unfortunate reality: They can be difficult to grow in our own gardens. L. cardinalis isn’t as forgiving as other natives that seem to thrive on our neglect. Providing what it needs is the key to success. But first, let’s take a short botany lesson.

Botany and wildlife

Not only are the red flowers attractive to hummingbirds, but the bloom’s shape plays a part in its success. Each bloom is a long tube, and at the bottom is a few drops of nectar. This shape is perfectly suited to the hummingbird’s long beak and tongue. When a hummingbird visits, it touches its head to the pistil and stamen, (reproductive organs), which stretch beyond the tube’s outer edges.

Culture and propagation

I’m combining these two topics because this is where L. cardinalis is a bit unforgiving. You can plant dozens and they might be gorgeous that first summer, but they might not return the next year—they might never return. Some gardeners love them so much that they treat them as an annual, replanting every year. This species needs good sunlight, but more importantly, moist soil, if you want them to return every year.

Lobelias aren’t true perennials; after setting seed, the stem and root system dies. New plants grow from the plant’s axil (the angle between the upper surface of a leaf and the stem it’s attached to). Although they grow quickly, they remain close to the ground and are obscured by the foliage above. Instead of seeds lying dormant in the soil all winter, you have evergreen seedlings that need tender loving care that first winter.

Keeping the new growth free of debris is vital, otherwise, the small rosettes don’t get the sunlight they require. Unfortunately, many of us add mulch in the fall and winter and unknowingly cover the new rosettes and they starve. Don’t add new mulch to L. cardinalis at this time of year. Instead, look for the new rosettes and remove mulch and debris that cover them. You don’t have to remove mulch from around them, just make sure the new leaves can get sunlight.

Debris is only the first hurdle to jump when trying to cultivate this native in your own gardens. This species self-sows only in moist soil. In Kentucky, that can spell a bit of trouble for gardeners because about the time this flower goes to seed, our climate often dries up. Keep the area moist if you want your flowers to reseed.

Never let them dry out for long. They are one of the few natives that will require additional water during hot spells and droughts. In nature, they grow along streams and ponds, and in swamps and wetlands. They prefer lots of sun but will tolerate and even thrive in shade as long as the soil is moist.

Propagation from both seeds and cuttings is easy. Collect seeds after the pods ripen and split, usually three to four weeks after blooming. It’s common for open blooms to persist toward the top of the stalk while pods near the bottom are ready to drop seeds. Take cuttings of two nodes early in the season so they’ll have time to produce a rosette.

Seeds require 60 days of cold moist stratification. Like many species with small seeds, they need light to germinate, so sow right on top of loose dirt. The seeds are tiny so it’s difficult to control them while sowing. If a new plant tries to bloom its first fall, clip the stalk to encourage more rosette growth.

To increase the chances that your L. cardinalis returns year after year, plant it in good sunlight, keep the area moist, and keep the bed free of debris once you spot new growth. They will thrive in some shade, as long as the soil is moist. It’s not difficult; knowing what to provide is the key. If you’d like a more reliable lobelia, consider Lobelia siphilitica. Its blue blooms are a true blue, the plant adapts well to most gardens, and hummingbirds like it.

Photo credits: Common license via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Invasive Plant Corner – An Introduction

Jeff Nelson, KNPS Board Member

Anyone who is interested in native plants will soon come across the term “invasive.” Invasive species and habitat loss are the main causes of biodiversity loss and destruction of native plant species worldwide. Although most of us have a general sense of what is meant when a species is deemed invasive, there is also a lot of confusion as to what an invasive plant is, what it does, and what should be done about it.

Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)

With this introduction, we are beginning a series of articles about invasive plants. In this first article we will define what is meant by an “invasive plant.” We will discuss why they are bad for our native ecosystems and discuss, in general, how they can be controlled. We will also point you towards online resources about invasive plants. In each subsequent article we will concentrate on a single type of invasive plant, giving information on how to identify the plant, where it came from, how it got here, the specific damage it does, how best to control it, and some native alternatives to plant when it has been removed.

Continue reading Invasive Plant Corner – An Introduction →

Help KNPS and Save $5

Every year, at Wildflower Weekend, we offer people a $5 discount on renewals or new memberships. This year, because of the cancellation of the Wildflower Weekend, the Board has decided to make the $5 discount available to everyone through the month of April.

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. You will see special plants and visit unique and interesting natural areas. 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. Members are given the opportunity to register for these events before they are opened to the general public.

Member dues also provide funding for the student research grants that the Society awards each year to students researching native plants in Kentucky.

Become a member or renew your membership using this discount membership form.

Grant Winner Spotlight: Calvin Andries

Calvin Andries

KNPS has many research grant opportunities; you can read about them and recent winners by viewing the Grants page. Recently, editor Nick Koenig caught up with 2018 winner, Calvin Andries to see how his research was going, and here’s what Calvin had to say.

During the 2018 growing season, I conducted vascular floras of two wetlands within the Red River Gorge Geological Area and Clifty Wilderness. The floras were created using vouchers I collected, and some herbarium records for a total of 106 vouchers from 2016–2018; they documented 35 families, 49 genera, and 61 species. The most taxon-rich families were Cyperaceae (10 spp.), Fagaceae (four spp.), and Rubiaceae (four spp.). This study investigated two NatureServe ecological systems – an Appalachian sinkhole and depression pond with the upland sweetgum-red maple pond association, and a Cumberland seepage forest with a forested swamp bog association.

The full results of this study are currently in review for publication, but this project wouldn’t have happened without the guidance of my advisor, Dr. Brad Ruhfel, and the support from the Society of Herbarium Curators, the Kentucky Society of Natural History, Battelle, and of course the Kentucky Native Plant Society. Without the support of these great groups I wouldn’t have been able to make the 20+ collecting trips and purchased the collecting supplies needed to conduct this flora.

Since finishing my flora, I have graduated from Eastern Kentucky University and have moved down south to the University of Georgia where I am pursuing a Masters of Science in Forestry and Natural Resources with a wildlife emphasis.

My masters thesis work will look a little different from my undergraduate research, but will be staying in the realm of botany. I am working with a power company to develop a way to remotely identify natural prairies along powerline right-of-ways in the eastern half of the Piedmont region of Georgia. This project will help preserve these uncommon early-successional habitats and document the impact they have on pollinators such as the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). In addition, this project will rely on a combination of field work, herbarium records, and citizen science data.

If anyone finds themselves in Georgia over the next year, make sure to post what flowers you see! Thank you to everyone at Kentucky Native Plant Society and within the botanical community in Kentucky for the support you gave me through undergrad, and for the well wishes as I continue my academic journey.

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Updated Native Plant Nursery List now Available!

Rachel Cook

One of the biggest questions for native plant enthusiasts is where to buy plants. Tara Littlefield, Jeff Nelson, and I wanted to improve the existing Native Plant Nursery list to help KNPS members find the right nursery to buy from. The existing Native Plant Nursery list was primarily contact information, and we want to share more about the plants and services offered. We used the Indiana Native Plant Society website as inspiration for updating our nursery list.

There are so many nurseries in Kentucky, how do you know what type of native products they are selling: cultivars vs locally collected seed, plants or seeds only, pollinator-friendly, or edibles? These were some of the many questions we thought were important to members, but answers were difficult to find. Who best to answer these questions than the nurseries themselves! To find nurseries, we used the existing nursery list and suggestion from the members of our KNPS Facebook group. I focused on Kentucky nurseries, but included nurseries in other states that were within an hour. With Jeff’s technical expertise, we created an online survey that I emailed to nurseries. After receiving most of the responses, I created a new template and updated the KNPS website, https://www.knps.org/native-plant-nurseries/.

After the initial update, we opened the survey up to the public! Now any nursery can use this link, https://www.knps.org/native-plant-supplier-form/, to fill out the survey and be included on the website. We are also working to create a page for native plant swaps and sales events using the same link. Do you have a nursery you would like included? Send them the survey, we would love to highlight more native plant suppliers!

Let’s take a nature walk…magical words spoken to a little city girl by her mother

Ann Longsworth

Railroad tracks ran along the end of our small backyard, along the edge where brambles grew, the occasional hobo slept, and Mother and I examined leaves and gathered wildflowers. From this seed planted long ago, a lifelong love of wildflowers grew. Many years later, this city kid bought nine rugged acres in Madison County, Kentucky. I named the property “Jean’s Glade,” after my mother. The first year was spent bush whacking and building a small home. The second year, I started exploring the property and discovered what turned out to be Gentiana flavida, a Kentucky state endangered species and the largest documented population at that time. So began a twenty-year odyssey.

I had a lot of questions about this plant and set out to find answers. First, how to positively identify the plant. Dr. Ralph Thompson, to whom Jean’s Glade owes much, identified the plant and collected the voucher specimen, currently housed in the Ralph Thompson Herbarium at Eastern Kentucky University. Next, how should I manage the plant? Heather Housman, formerly of the State Nature Preserves, was an incredible asset in this process. I chainsawed eight 110-year-old cedars. Staff with the Landowner Incentive Program removed numerous saplings, as did Josie Miller and Nathan Skinner, one winter day. With more exposure to the sun, what was originally 129 gentians became 634 at last count (I continue to remove woody plants, an ongoing job).

Finally, should the plant be studied? Dr. Chris Adams of Berea College and Dr. Ralph Thompson, Berea College retiree, completed the floristic study of the gentians which was published in Phytoneurexon, 2017-83: 1-25. Other studies to come: germination requirements of Gentiana flavida and isolating the mycorrhiza associated with the plant.

At Jean’s Glade, gentians grow on a south-west facing slope. They occur in a small prairie inclusion and in the open mixed hardwood/cedar forest edging the meadow. Gentiana flavida is a sun loving perennial that is recruited by seed. They bloom August through September and are pollinated by bumblebees. According to Drs. Adam and Thompson, “Gentiana flavida populations are imperiled throughout much of their distribution range because of extreme habitat loss primarily from anthropogenic disturbances, forest expansion, absence of fire, and invasive grasses and forbs.”

The efforts I’ve made for the gentians may read as if it was a trouble-free path. Nothing could be further from the truth! Along my journey, I encountered years of what seemed to be insurmountable problems, read stacks of literature, cold-called various researchers, professors, and authors, visited a gentian site in Indiana, and mostly refused to take “No” or “Can’t” for an answer. I have met many wonderful people because of this plant and probably ruffled a few feathers, and let’s just say, the electric company could probably describe to perfection “old Betsy” my rather rusty hunting gun (not a recommended conservation tool, but effective).

Many things have changed in the past twenty year. “Miss Jean” passed away five years ago. Now in my senior years, I face the biggest challenge yet: how to preserve the Glade, knowing that I will need to sell it in order to move closer to town soon. This may be one problem I am unable to solve.

It is springtime at Jean’s Glade now. Titmice are calling, goldfinches are fussing, and the creek beside my house sounds like a sweetly flowing conversation. I can almost hear a voice saying, “Let’s take a nature walk!” And I would add, “While it’s still here, while it’s all still here.”

Ann Longsworth is a retired psychologist whose avocation is Kentucky native plants. Two events sort of encouraged my pursuit of native plants. First, we moved to Kentucky for my father’s work at Berea College. The college property we moved to had lots of native plants. Second, was my first short-term course at Berea College, which was at Pine Mountain Settlement School. I also grow native plants and have a native plant fundraiser sale (this year will be my eight) and give all of the proceeds to Monarch Watch and/or nature projects.

Native clover conservation in the Bluegrass: an agronomic perspective

Jonathan O.C. Kubesch, University of Tennessee

Clovers are an odd group of plants caught between agriculture and agronomy, especially in the Bluegrass. Agronomists and cattlemen find clovers important for their nitrogen contribution and nutritive value to livestock. Horse owners fear clover for the fungal pathogen behind slobbers. Wildlife managers use them for food plots. Of the roadside clovers, most came to Kentucky with settlers (Ball et al., 2015; Bryson and DeFelice, 2009). Those red and white clovers came with the tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. These species play an important role in Kentucky agriculture; however, the horse parks and cattle farms have replaced the natural ecosystems in the state (Noss, 2013; Campbell, 2014; Campbell, 2010).

In addition to these introduced species, Kentucky has three prominent native clovers: annual buffalo clover, running buffalo clover, and Kentucky clover (Vincent, 2001). Although collections of the native clovers have been made across Kentucky, it is really very uncommon to find these populations unless one knows where someone else has previously found it. It is unlikely that the reader will find these species in the local park or native area.

Annual buffalo clover (Trifolium reflexum), is spread throughout most of the eastern United States. The beautiful blooms have led to its potential as a horticultural species (Quesenberry et al., 2003). Of the native clovers, the genetics of the flowering in annual buffalo clover have been the most explored: red, white, and pink flowers (Quesenberry et al., 2003). At one point, it was favored over naturalized white clover in unimproved grazing lands (Killebrew, 1898).

Running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) is a perennial species limited to the Ohio River Valley and Missouri. Plants spread on thick runners like strawberries. The species was investigated as a potential forage in the 1990s, and has been the subject of interest for herbivory dynamics in the eastern United States. The thick seed coat requires scarification in order for the seed to germinate (Kubesch, 2018; Sustar, 2017). Hoof action has been proposed as a driver in the ecology of the species, but a general disturbance regime seems necessary for the species to persist in the landscape (Kubesch, 2018). With some sandpaper and a few hours of free time, seed can be scarified. Running buffalo clover grows readily in the greenhouse.

Running buffalo clover in the greenhouse. Photo credit: Jonathan Kubesch
Continue reading Native clover conservation in the Bluegrass: an agronomic perspective →