2021 KNPS Botanical Symposium (virtual)

Xerohydric Prairie remnant, Russell County, Kentucky, Eastern Highland Rim. @T. Littlefield

Wednesday, December 8, 9AM-1130AM EST, virtual and free

“Coming Together to Discuss Current Botany Projects: Conservation and Collaboration in Kentucky and Beyond”

Kentucky Native Plant Society (KNPS) is hosting our annual botanical symposium on Wednesday, December 8th from 9AM-1130AM EST. For several years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium in the fall/winter with a goal of bringing together professionals, community scientists, academics, researchers, gardeners and students in order to learn about what’s going on in the world of Kentucky Botany and beyond. Please join us!

To Kentucky Native Plant Society members and general native plant stakeholders! While the symposium agenda will highlight updates from Kentucky native plant society, the office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, and our main speakers from division of water, NRCS/Quail Forever/Southeastern Grasslands Initiative, and the Illinois plants of concern program, there will also be a section devoted to hearing about native plants projects from KNPS members and native plant stakeholders like YOU! If you would like to be included in this section, please send an email to Tara Littlefield @ tara.littlefield@ky.gov about the native plant project you are working on and you will be added to our stakeholder announcements section.

We are very excited to announce the agenda, featuring updates from botanists/ecologists from the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves on state listings, adding plants to the state wildlife action plan, adopting a rockhouse in the RRG, implemented plant conservation conservation horticulture projects, and current monitoring programs; updates from Kentucky Native Plant Society board members on upcoming meetings and projects; Chris Benda, the Illinois botanizer, will be talking about the rare plant monitoring program he leads in southern Illinois, Brittney Viers will discuss working with private landowners to restore remnant prairies, Joey Shaw will discuss the Tennessee-Kentucky Plant Atlas, and Brittany White will provide updates on the Wetland Assessments conducted by Kentucky Division of Water. Click on the PDF below for the agenda.

Kentucky Botanical Symposium 2021 Speakers and Facilitators :

Brittney Viers, QF/NRCS TN State Coordinator/Southeastern Grasslands Initiative Liaison will be discussing Remnant Grassland Restoration on Private Lands in Kentucky and Tennessee.

“I’m originally from Northeast TX, which historically was the Blackland Prairie region.  My parents and I moved to southern Indiana since my Mother is from there.  I spent the rest of my childhood growing up on a row crop and cattle farm, but realized that natural history and ecology was my passion.  While in college at Murray State University studying Wildlife Biology I started working for IN DNR Div. of Nature Preserves and fell in love with the glades and barrens of southcentral IN.  I stayed at MSU to acquire a masters degree in Botany.  Because of my native plant and natural communities knowledge, I became a quail biologist in KY and later in TN working with private landowners desiring to restore habitat and improve their quail and other upland wildlife populations.  In 2019, I got the chance to have a strictly grasslands and quail focused position through a specialized Farm Bill grant in both KY and TN.  I will always strive to merge private lands work with restoration practices in degraded remnant grasslands since they are in desperate need of our recognition, care, and attention”. 

Brittney Viers, QF/NRCS TN State Coordinator/Southeastern Grasslands Initiative Liaison, in a grassland remnant.

Chris Benda, Botanist and former president of the Illinois Native Plant Society will be discussing Monitoring Rare Plants of Southern Illinois (Plants of Concern program). 

Chris Benda is a botanist and past president of the Illinois Native Plant Society (2015-2016).  Currently, he works as a Researcher at Southern Illinois University, where he coordinates the Plants of Concern Southern Illinois Program and teaches The Flora of Southern Illinois.  Besides working at SIU, he conducts botanical fieldwork around the world, teaches a variety of classes at The Morton Arboretum and leads nature tours for Camp Ondessonk.  He has research appointments with the University of Illinois and Argonne National Laboratory, and is an accomplished photographer and author of several publications about natural areas in Illinois.  He is also known as Illinois Botanizer and can be reached by email at botanizer@gmail.com. Visit his website at https://illinoisbotanizer.com/

Chris Benda in a native grassland showing off a rare orchid in Illinois.

Brittany White, Division of Water Wetland Biologist, will be discussing Wetland Monitoring in Kentucky.

Brittany is a wetland biologist with the Kentucky Division of Water’s Wetlands Program.  After spending several years working in wetlands across the southeast, she is happy to work in Kentucky searching for salamanders, admiring soil profiles, and of course, looking at plants.  Although not in her job description, she also specializes in performing terrible nature-based parodies for her coworkers. When Brit is not at work, she enjoys meandering the woods with her best mutt Evelyn, hanging out with her two kiddos, and having far too many hobbies than is reasonable.

Brittany White, Division of Water Wetland Biologist

Dr. Joey Shaw, Associate Professor @ University of Tennessee, will be presenting on the Kentucky Tennessee Plant Atlas Project. 

Tara Littlefield, Botanist and Plant Conservation Section Manager at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves and President of the Kentucky Native Plant Society, will be co-facilitating the meeting and presenting updates on on a few priority plant projects from OKNP.

Tara Littlefield is the senior botanist and manager of the Plant Conservation Section at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.  She serves on the board of the Kentucky Native Plant Society and coordinates the state’s plant conservation alliance activities-a public private partnership working on rare plant and community conservation.  She grew up on the southern edge of the cedar creek glade complex in Hardin County, Kentucky and has had a fascination with the natural world since a small child.  Tara has a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Louisville and a M.S. in Forestry/Plant Ecology from the University of Kentucky.  Much of her work involves rare species surveys, general floristic inventories, natural areas inventory, acquisition of natural areas, and rare plant/community restoration and recovery.

Tara Littlefield in her happy place along the river scour in the Big South Fork.

Vanessa Voelker, botanist at OKNP, will be discussing the adopt a rockshelter program and other volunteer opportunies.

Vanessa Voelker is a botanist with the Plant Conservation Section at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. Originally from central Illinois, Vanessa worked as a lab tech for the USDA before fleeing the lab for the woods, and honed her skills as a botany technician in Missouri and Indiana before coming to Kentucky in 2020. When she isn’t in the field, Vanessa is active on iNaturalist (@vvoelker) and is always happy to help with plant identification and offer pro-tips for differentiating between tricky species

Vanessa finding a heart shaped leaf in limestone barrens.

Kendall McDonald, OKNP botanist/lichenologist will be presenting on the forest biodiversity project and lichen assessments.

Kendall McDonald is a KY native who researched lichens at Morehead State University. Since 2017, she has been a botanist and lichenologist with the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. She is the lead on OKNP’s Forest Biodiversity Assessment Program and lichen monitoring

Kendall excited to find lungwort lichen, an old growth forest indicator.

Rachel Cook will be discussing the Kentucky Native Plant Suppliers database. Rachel Cook is a botany technician with the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. Rachel is a Kentucky native, growing up on a farm in Perryville, Kentucky. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.A. and a B.S. in Environmental Sciences, but botany was always her passion. As a botany technician, she helps on rare plant surveys and floristic inventories throughout the state.  When not working, Rachel is tending to her house plant collection, hiking around Kentucky, or cuddling her cat.

Rachel and the state endangered small white ladyslipper.

Heidi Braunreiter will be presenting the KNPS updates and upcoming events. Heidi is a botanist and burn boss for the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. She is originally from Wisconsin and has done botanical surveys across the eastern United States. Heidi received her B.S. in Biological Aspects of Conservation and a certificate in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2011, she met Dr. Ronald Jones on a KNPS Wildflower Weekend hike and decided to pursue a graduate degree at Eastern Kentucky University. She received her M.S. in Biology at EKU and finished her master’s thesis on A Vascular Flora of Boyle County, Kentucky.

Tony Romano will be providing an update to the states roadside pollinator habitat project. Tony is a botanist with the Plant Conservation Section at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. He is the project coordinator for OKNP’s roadside pollinator habitat project. Originally from Illinois, Tony received a M.S. in Geography from Southern Illinois University. Tony spent several years working in land management and botany in Colorado before moving to Kentucky in 2019. When not botanizing he can be found climbing in the red river gorge and fly fishing on Elkhorn Creek.

Register Here for the Botanical Symposium

Registration is now closed

Save the Date! The annual Kentucky Botanical Symposium (virtual) December 8, 9am-12pm

KNPS is hosting a virtual botanical symposium on Wednesday, December 8th from 9AM-12PM 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. Please join us to learn about all things botanical in Kentucky and the surrounding region.

Topics that will be covered will include, but will not be limited to, KNPS updates, plant conservation alliance updates, conservation horticulture and native plant propagation; monitoring and managing native and rare plants and natural communities,; native plant research; plant biodiversity in Kentucky and the surrounding regions and exciting new botanical discoveries.

Botanical Drawing: Flower Portraits in Pencil
Wildflower Week 2021

When: Wednesday, April 14th from 5:30PM-8:30PM EDT
Location: Online Live Class via Zoom
Instructor: Amy Tipton

As part of KNPS’s Wildflower Week 2021 activities we are incredibly excited to be able to offer this botanical drawing class.

Plants offer an unending supply of interesting shapes, textures, and details for artists to discover and translate to the page. Botanists and artists alike must develop skills of seeing plants deeply. Amy will help introduce participants to critical exploration of plant forms. An understanding of basic plant parts and floral arrangement will be discussed briefly to assure accurate representations of the selected subject specimen(s). Once the participants choose a plant/flower to draw, they will learn how to select an interesting composition, capture the subject’s proportions, create a line drawing, and complete their plant portrait with a range of values created through an exploration of different types of mark. A live Zoom format will offer opportunities for students to ask questions.

Sign Up and Zoom Registration

You can sign up for the class and get other information (supplies needed, etc.) at Amy’s KNPS Wildflower Week Botanical Drawing (Flower Portraits in Pencil) page.

Instructor

Amy Tipton is the Assistant Director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens. She holds a Masters of Science degree from Eastern Kentucky University, where she studied native plant ID and plant ecology under the guidance of Dr. Ron Jones. Amy holds bachelor degrees in Drawing and Art History, as well as an MFA in Printmaking.  She enjoys botanical drawing and contributed over 50 pen and ink line drawings to Jones’ Plant Life of Kentucky. Amy has been a recipient of the Ophelia Anne Dowden Education Grant from the American Society of Botanical Artists.

Amy has taught for over 20 years.  Some of her past teaching posts have included instructing University-level drawing, art appreciation, and ecology, and 7th grade science as a National Science Foundation Fellow.  She often presents talks for those interested in native plants.  Since her arrival at UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens in July of 2018, Amy has taught Wildflower ID, Native Tree ID, Native Shrub ID, Botanical Drawing I and II, Pressing Plants for Science and Art, and Botanical Watercolor for the Certificate of Native Plant Studies program. Amy has previously served on the board and strategic planning committee for the KNPS, and currently is active with the North Carolina Native Plant Society.

The Kentucky Botanical Symposium 2020

On Dec. 11, 2020, KNPS held our first virtual membership meeting and botanical symposium. For several years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium in the fall 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. Despite the pandemic year, we thought it was important to continue this event.

We had over 120 people join us online for several hours of informative presentations and interesting discussions. We know that many people wanted to join us but were unable to for various reasons. Here are all of the presentations.

Keynote Address:
The Flora of the Southeastern United States – its Evolution, Exploration, and Conservation

Dr. Alan Weakley
Alan is the Director, UNC Herbarium (NCU), North Carolina Botanical Gardens, as well as Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Biology and Ecology, Environment, and Energy Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More about Dr. Weakley

1 hour 8 minutes long

State of Kentucky Plant Conservation and KNPS Updates.

Jen Koslow, Tara Littlefield, Nick Koenig, & Jeff Nelson
Jen is an Associate Professor in Biological Sciences at Eastern Kentucky University specializing in plant ecology. Tara is the Rare Plant Program Manager & Botanist in the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, as well as the KNPS President. Nick is a student at EKU and KNPS Ladyslipper Associate Editor. Jeff is a KNPS Board member and a life long amateur naturalist.

30 minutes long

Inventory, Monitoring and Management of Rare Plants and Communities in State Nature Preserves and Natural Areas

Devin Rodgers
Devin is a Botanist with the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.

28 minutes long

Remnant Grasslands and Pollinator Habitat Along Kentucky’s Roadsides

Tony Romano
Tony is a Botanist with the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.

26 minutes long

Native Plant Propagation Projects

Emily Ellingson & Heidi Braunreiter
Emily is the Curator and Native Plants Collection Manager at The Arboretum: State Botanical Garden and a KNPS Board member. Heidi is a Botanist with the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky State Nature Preserves and Vice President of KNPS.

29 minutes long

Exciting Kentucky Botanical Discoveries

Mason Brock & Tara Littlefield
Mason is the Herbarium Collections Manager at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville Tennessee. Tara is the Rare Plant Program Manager & Botanist in the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves and President of KNPS.

39 minutes long

Kentucky Botanical Symposium 2020 (Virtual)

Kentucky Botanical Symposium and Membership Meeting

KNPS is having a virtual botanical symposium on Thursday, December 10th from 10am-2pm EST. For several years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium in the fall 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. Despite the pandemic year, we thought it was important to continue this event, so please navigate this virtual world and join us to learn about all things botanical in Kentucky.

Topics that will be covered will include, but will not be limited to, KNPS updates, an overview of plant conservation in Kentucky, Kentucky’s roadside grassland and pollinator habitat program, conservation horticulture and native plant propagation, monitoring and managing rare plants and communities on State Nature Preserves, and exciting new Kentucky botanical discoveries.

Agenda

  • 10:00-10:10 Welcome & Introduction
  • 10:10-10:40 State of KY Plant Conservation and KNPS updates
    Jen Koslow, Tara Littlefield, Jeff Nelson, Susan Harkins and David Taylor
  • 10:40-11:05 Inventory, Monitoring and Management of rare plants and communities in State Nature preserves and Natural areas
    Devin Rodgers (Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves)
  • 11:05-11:10 Break
  • 11:10-11:35 Roadside Native Plants Project
    Tony Romano (Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves) and panel
  • 11:35-12:00 Native Plant Propagation Projects
    Emily Ellingson (UK Arboretum), Heidi Braunreiter (Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves)
  • 12:00-12:30 Lunch Break
  • 12:30-1:30 Keynote Speaker, Dr. Alan Weakley
  • 1:30-1:55 Exciting Kentucky Botanical Discoveries
    Mason Brock (Southeastern Grasslands Initiative/Austin Peay State University), Tara Littlefield (Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves)
  • 1:55-2:00 Wrap-up

Keynote Speaker

We could not be more excited about our Keynote speaker Dr. Alan Weakley!   Alan is a plant taxonomist and ecologist whose work in taxonomy and plant conservation has sparked a renaissance of botany in the southeast.  Just after lunch, Alan will address Kentucky’s Botanical Community on interesting topics ranging from plant evolution and biogeography, to conservation, taxonomy and citizen science. 

Alan Weakley, plant taxonomist, community ecologist and conservationist.

Alan Weakley is a plant taxonomist, community ecologist, and conservationist specializing in the Southeastern United States. He holds a B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. from Duke University.  He has worked as botanist and ecologist for the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, and as regional and chief ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and NatureServe. He is currently Director of the UNC Herbarium, a department of the N.C. Botanical Garden, and teaches as adjunct faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill and at the Highlands Biological Station. 

Alan is author of the Flora of the Southeastern United States, and co-author (with Chris Ludwig and Johnny Townsend) of the Flora of Virginia, which has received five awards, including the Thomas Jefferson Award for Conservation. He is also co-author (along with Laura Cotterman and Damon Waitt) of Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast.

The Flora of the Southeastern United States is an open access, downloadable flora with over 10,000 species. See the article about this important research here: Flora of the Southeastern United States – 2020 Edition

He has also released an app, FloraQuest, co-developed with Michael Lee and Rudy Nash, covering the Southeastern United States flora. He has authored over 100 journal articles and book chapters, and is in high demand as a speaker on plant taxonomy, community classification and mapping, biogeography, and biodiversity conservation. He is active with the Flora of North America project and the United States National Vegetation Classification, serves as an advisor to the N.C. Natural Heritage Program and N.C. Plant Conservation Program, and is a co-founder of the Carolina Vegetation Survey. As a trustee and board member of public and private conservation granting agencies and foundations, he has helped oversee $400,000,000 of land conservation grants in the Southeastern United States.

Plant Family Identification Workshop

WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Plant Family Identification Motifs:
patterns for simplifying the complexity

Instructor: Dr. Richard Abbott*

When: Saturday, March 21, 2020
Time:  9am-4pm Eastern Time
Where:  Bernheim Arboretum & Forest, meet at the Garden Pavilion
Cost:  $25 /$10 for students
Bring your own lunch, and wear hiking shoes

Using minimal basic vocabulary, approximately 30 plant families, and half a dozen artificial motifs, we will focus on plant identification patterns.  Learning Kentucky plants within a global framework not only empowers confidence in knowing what you know, but enables identifying more than 130,000 plants to family globally and provides a solid foundation for incorporating other family patterns.  Essentially, this workshop is an introduction to a way of thinking about how to organize botanical knowledge in a practical, applied way.

*About the Instructor

Dr. J. Richard Abbott, Assistant Professor of Biology, is the current Curator of the University of Arkansas Monticello Herbarium. At UAM, he teaches General Botany, Regional Flora, and Plants in Our World and conducts floristic, systematic, and taxonomic research, especially with the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology and German from Berea College in Kentucky and both M.S. degree and Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Florida in Gainesville. His primary passion is teaching plant identification, using the local flora to understand global patterns. To that end, he is currently working to establish a living teaching collection on the UAM campus, with the ultimate goal of cultivating as many families and genera as possible.

Workshops are opened to KNPS members for registration 2 weeks before they are opened to the general public. This session has been filled by KNPS members. If you are interested in this workshop you can sign up on the waiting list below. If an opening occurs the first person on the waiting list will be contacted If there is significant interest in the workshop we will try to schedule another session as soon as possible and the people on the waiting list will be the first contacted about the new session.

Sedge Workshop

Sedge Identification and Diversity
(Carex, Cyperaceae)

Many of the grass-like plants one may encounter in our natural areas in Kentucky are not actually grasses. Although similar, they are members of an entirely different family of plants; the sedge family (Cyperaceae)

Instructor: Rob Naczi*

When: May 21-22, 2019 (Tuesday/Wednesday)
Time:  9am-5pm Eastern Time
Where:  Richmond area, Eastern Kentucky University and nearby natural areas, exact details TBA
Cost:  $75

THIS WORKSHOP HAS FINISHED

Many of the grass-like plants one may encounter in our natural areas in Kentucky are not actually grasses. Although similar, they are members of an entirely different family of plants. This workshop will focus on the largest genus within the sedge family (Cyperaceae), the genus Carex. With close to 150 species in this genus found in Kentucky, the diversity of sedges (Carex) is astounding and they can tell us a lot about the natural communities upon which they are found. Rob Naczi, curator of the New York Botanical garden and North America’s Carex expert, will teach us about sedge diversity and how to identify this notoriously difficult group. 

*About the Instructor

Robert F. C. Naczi, PhD
Arthur J. Cronquist Curator of North American Botany, The New York Botanical Garden

http://www.nybg.org/science/scientist_profile.php?id_scientist=105
http://sweetgum.nybg.org/northeastflora/index.php
rnaczi@nybg.or

Rob Naczi

Robert Naczi is a plant systematist whose research focuses on the flora of North America, plant conservation, sedges (Cyperaceae), and Western Hemisphere Pitcher Plants (Sarraceniaceae). Naczi uses a multi-pronged approach in his research, utilizing field, herbarium, and laboratory methods. His fieldwork has given him first-hand knowledge of the plant life of much of North America. He and collaborators are writing a comprehensive account of the Northeast’s spontaneous plants, New Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. He is lead editor of Sedges: Uses, Diversity, and Systematics of the Cyperaceae (2008). Also, he co-authored Mistaken Identity? Invasive Plants and their Native Look-alikes: An identification guide for the Mid-Atlantic (2008). For 35 years, he has studied the taxonomy, phylogeny, and ecology of Carex. Carex is the largest genus of flowering plants in North America (500 species) and in most temperate regions of the world (2000 species total). Naczi earned the B.S. in Biology from St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, and the Ph.D. in Botany from University of Michigan.