Kentucky Native Plant Society Sandbox

Author: Jeff Nelson

  • Wildflowers of Cove Spring Park – Length 11:11

    Join Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves botanist and Lichenologist Kendall McDonald as she explores what spring ephemerals are blooming at Cove Springs Park in Frankfort, KY.

  • Betty Hall’s Native Garden Tour – Length 13:33

    Join Betty Hall in a tour of her native garden.

  • Ferns of Anglin Falls – Length 5:35

    Join Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves botanist Rachel Cook on a virtual hike through John B. Stephenson Memorial Forest State Nature Preserve. While this Preserve is known for its beauty, Anglin Falls, it also has a great diversity of ferns with 32 species!

  • Wildflower Week 2021—Something for Everyone

    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, exploring the region’s rich natural history and resources in the state park and the Red River Gorge, as well as evening presentations. Last year, due to COVID-19, we were forced to cancel Wildflower Weekend for the first time ever.

    This year, with the pandemic still disrupting in-person activities, KNPS is hosting a virtual Wildflower Week! This will include virtual events from April 10th through April 17th, including a week-long, statewide BotanyBlitz on iNaturalist. This is an opportunity to broaden our spring wildflower scope to the entire state of Kentucky and allow us to highlight natural areas across the state! In addition to the BotanyBlitz we will have virtual field trips, led by naturalists from around the state, online workshops, a wildflower trivia contest, and more.

    With so many activities, be sure to check out the Wildflower Week 2021 homepage for details and summaries of our events. In particular, refer to the WW Schedule at the bottom of the page.

  • BotanyBlitz: A Community Science Event
    Wildflower Week 2021

    Wildflower Week 2021 is shaping up to be an amazing series of native plant related activities. The centerpiece of the week will be our community science project, the 2021 BotanyBlitz. From Saturday, April 10, through Saturday, April 17, we are encouraging everyone to visit parks and natural areas throughout the Commonwealth, find and photograph plants, with an emphasis on natives in bloom, and upload them to the KNPS Wildflower Week 2021 BotanyBlitz project.

    xxxxxxxxAn example of an iNaturalist observation

    A botany blitz is an event where anyone who joins the project on iNaturalist can use a camera (or cellphone) to snap a picture of a plant, in a given area (in this case all of Kentucky), during a given time frame (in this case April 10-17), and then upload the image (called an Observation) to their iNaturalist account. At the end of the week, we will have a gallery, a map showing the locations, and totals by numbers, species, and by each person, of all the great plants we found! Expert botanists and people with a keen identifying eye will be able to add comments to your specimens on why they agree or disagree with a certain identification, so we can all learn better ways to ID plants in the future.

    If you do not have an iNaturalist account, please consider setting one up and then joining the BotanyBlitz project. It’s easy and fun and each observation contributes to our knowledge of the plants of Kentucky. Nick Koenig recently wrote an article showing the simple steps to join iNaturalist and the BotanyBlitz project and a short video of how to make and upload an observation. Check it out HERE!.

    If you are not already familiar with iNaturalist, take a look at the site and some of KNPS’ other projects, such as the Kentucky Botanists Big Year 2021.

    We are hoping that we can get at least one observation from every county in Kentucky. Won’t you join us and show the rest of us what native plants are blooming in your county?

  • 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.

  • Opening & Closing Sessions
    Wildflower Week 2021

    Opening and Closing Sessions

    Wildflower Week 2021 is going to kick off with an opening session on Saturday, April 10, and end with a closing session on Saturday, April 17. Both sessions will be virtual, and presented on Zoom. In order to participate in either or both sessions, fill out the registration form below.

    Opening Session, April 10, 2021, 4PM-6PM EDT

    Closing Session, April 17, 2021, 4PM-6PM EDT

      • Winners of BotanyBlitz 2021
      • Highlights of finds
      • KNPS activities for the remainder of 2021