Date of trip: 10/12/2021
Start time: 5:30PM Eastern Time
Location: Pine Creek Barrens Nature Preserve
Difficulty of hike: Moderate – hike should last 1.5 to 2 hours so we can be finished before dark.
Join Kentucky Native Plant Society member Alan Abbott on an informal, evening walk to see populations of Great Plains ladies tresses at 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.
Within this open woodland, large prairie-like openings host a diversity of flora native to grasslands and glades. 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.
In addition to the Great Plains Ladies tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum) that we will be viewing, a number of other rare or infrequent plants grow here, and most years, visitors can also see Barrens Silky Aster (Symphyotrichum pratense) 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.