Kentucky Native Plant Society Sandbox

Author: Jeff Nelson

  • 2024 KNPS Fall Meeting at Bernheim Arboretum, October 19

    Mark your calendars and plan to meet up with other KNPS members and friends as we head to the Bernheim Arboretum for the Society’s 2024 Fall Meeting, on Oct 19th. We will meet in the Bernheim Arboretum Visitor Center in the Sassafras Room. If you want to learn more about KNPS, meet other Kentucky native plant enthusiasts, and learn more about the native plants of Kentucky, then the KNPS Fall Meeting is for you!

    We are still finalizing details of the Fall Meeting, but here is the schedule for the day (all times are Eastern Daylight Time).

    • Morning session: 10am, in the Sassafras Room in the Visitor Center at the Bernheim Arboretum 2075 Clermont Road, Clermont, KY
      • 10am – Welcome and KNPS Updates – KNPS Board
      • 10:45am – One or more talks on plants native to the area and the special plant communities they are part of.
    • 12noon – Lunch on your own. You can get lunch at Issac’s Cafe in the Visitor Center or bring your own lunch.
    • 1pm – 4:00pm – Afternoon Walks – We are still finalizing our walk schedules.

    There is no fee to attend the meeting, but we are requesting that folks pre-register for the meeting using the form below.

    If you have any questions, send an email to KYPlants@knps.org

    Please use this form to indicate that you are currently planning to attend the Fall Meeting.

  • Letter to the Editors; 20 Aug 2024

    By Julian Campbell

    Conservation is a primary interest of KNPS, as stated in the mission statement and elsewhere, but what are its precise goals for “education, preservation, and protection of Kentucky’s native plants and ecological systems”? Are we just going to accept goals developed by government, or will we seek a more cooperative discussion? Without clear goals, how can we assess progress?

    Natural Heritage Programs were developed for each state government about 50 years ago through partnerships with The Nature Conservancy. There is a need to revive this system through stronger grass-roots interactions, inviting all people committed to our native flora and fauna. There is now greater potential for more effective flow of new information through networks of observers. The NHP (as managed by Nature Preserves in Kentucky) was initially envisaged as an integrated system of databases, linking records at whole site level (prioritized lands and waters for conservation), habitat level (including degraded types for restoration), and species level (especially those rare natives deserving recovery). There was also an elaborate system for maintaining stewardship records, but never widely adopted. Priorities for action have become relatively clear at site and species levels in most of our 120 counties. However, the habitat level generally needs a lot more work to define types in an understandable manner, to design restoration of degraded types, and to keep track of progress.

    KNPS could become the botanical glue that builds (or mends) the network we need in Kentucky. It is particularly important to seek more interaction among the few scattered professional botanists, restorationists and horticulturalists interested in promoting natives. There has not been enough bonding between such varied groups of ‘plants-people’ in the state. It is of course difficult for KNPS to work across the whole state, but we could start at more amenable regional or local scales.

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  • From the Lady Slipper Archives: Remnant Prairies at WKWMA

    The Lady Slipper newsletter of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. This one, about remnant prairie ecosystems in western Kentucky, first appeared in the winter of 1995, Vol. 10, No. 4. If you would like to see other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 38, 2023, can be found.

    Remnant Prairies at West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area

    by Charlie Logsdon, West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area Supervisor [at the time of this article, 1995]

    The history of the land and people that have inhabited the area of what is now West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area (WKWMA) would be suitable for a Michenor novel. West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area is about 6,700 acres in size and is located about 12 miles north west of Paducah . Long before European contact the area was frequented by mound builders, Chickasaws and other native Americans.

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  • Bonnie Reid (1959-2024)

    Bonnie Reid
    August 12, 1959 – July 4, 2024

    We were sad to hear of the passing in July of Bonnie Reid, a landscape architect and arborist in the Bluegrass Region. For most of 1986, she worked with Julian Campbell at the University of Kentucky to collect seed, cuttings and diggings of trees and shrubs for the planned Kentucky State Arboretum. In that year also the KNPS was formed.

    Bonnie was very interested in native plants and the Society. She was one of few licensed female arborists and an early proponent of using native plants in landscaping, specializing in perennial displays. Her clients included some of the old horse farms, often surrounded by ancient ashes and oaks. Even in town, her life connected auspiciously with the native flora. Working in the garden of Joan Gaines on Gratz Park, she discovered a small patch of running buffalo clover and called Julian, who helped to grow the plant and collect seeds. We thank her family and friends for donating to KNPS in her honor. 

    Obituary

  • Purple Fringeless Orchid (Platanthera peramoena A. Gray): A Small Restoration Success Story

    Purple fringeless orchid (Platanthera peramoena) – Photo by Pat Ranval

    By Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

    The purple fringeless orchid (Platanthera peramoena A. Gray) is one of Kentucky’s 40+ native, terrestrial orchids. It is widespread in Kentucky, though uncommon. The species is found in moist forests, woodlands, meadows, and thickets, as well as in marshes and swamps. It grows from 1’-4’ tall, producing 2-5 spreading leaves along its stem. In early to mid-July the plant bears an inflorescence of multiple, showy, pink or purple flowers.

    In 2016, I came across a single volunteer specimen of P. peramoena growing in moist woods on our 10 acres in SW McCracken county, Kentucky. At the time I am writing this, in early July of 2024, there are fifteen plants, twelve of which are flowering. In this post I am going to go through the processes that led to the (so far) successful expansion of this population of orchids.

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  • Ballard WMA Field Trip

    By Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

    On Saturday, June 15, a group of KNPS members and friends enjoyed a field trip to the Ballard WMA in Ballard county in far western Kentucky. Ballard Wildlife Management Area is 8,000 acres located in the Ohio River bottomlands ecoregion in far western Kentucky. The WMA is mostly wetland with 39% of the acreage in wetland, 28% forest, 27% open land, and 6% open water. Much of the wetland is comprised of rare, cypress-tupelo swamps and sloughs which many Kentuckians have not had the opportunity to experience. The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves lists cypress-tupelo swamp as a state endangered ecosystem.

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  • Wildflower Weekend 2024 in Review

    On Friday, April 12th and Saturday, April 13, nearly 200 members and friends enjoyed KNPS’s 35th Wildflower Weekend, at Natural Bridge SRP! With more hikes, workshops, and kid’s activities than we have ever had and with many of the best botanists in Kentucky in attendance, Wildflower Weekend 2024 was an unqualified success.

    Wildflower Walks

    Wildflower walks and hikes are the defining activities of every Wildflower Week, but this year we also included hikes about fire ecology, geology, birds, herps, butterflies, pollinators, reptiles and more! Beginning at noon on Friday and running through the end of the day on Saturday, we enjoyed a record number 25 flora and fauna walks, led by over 30 of the best botanists, zoologists and naturalists in the country. Exploring the amazing diversity of the plant communities in Natural Bridge SRP and the Red River Gorge Geological Area, participants learned about and enjoyed dozens of native plant species, the fauna associated with them, and the amazing geology and hydrology that surrounds them.

    In addition to our usual “all things botanical” hikes, we had hikes concentrating on birds, reptiles and amphibians, geology, fire ecology, and pollinators and butterflies. There were also a couple of workshops, “Non-Native Invasive Species Management” and an art workshop, “Reflecting on Nature through Artmaking.” These new additions to Wildflower Weekend were enjoyed by all who participated and brought in several new faces to our annual gathering.

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