The Lady Slipper - Current Issue Archives - Kentucky Native Plant Society Sandbox

KNPS Field Trip to Scott’s Gap, Jefferson Memorial Forest – October 10, 2026

Date of trip: 10/10/2026
Time: 10AM Eastern Time
Location: Scott’s Gap, Jefferson Memorial Forest, Jefferson Co., KY
Difficulty of hike: Strenuous

Join KNPS Field Trip Chair Alan Abbott for a hike in the Scott’s Gap section of Jefferson Memorial Forest. The hike explores some unusual xeric ridges within Metro Louisville.

In the driest parts, hikers will see Blackjack (Quercus marilandica) and Chinkapin Oaks (Quercus muehlenbergii), as well as Blueberries (Vaccinium sp.), Goldenrods (Solidago sp.), False Floxgloves (Agalinis sp.), and Dittany (Cunila origanoides). The trail provides some scenic views of south Louisville.

While the hike will only be two to three total miles, it will be strenuous, especially as the group follows the trail to the top of the knob. Participants should bring sturdy shoes, water and a snack, as well as tick protection.

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Exploring the Incredible Cumberland Plateau River Scour Community

By. Tara R. Littlefield

Earlier this year [2019], I was working on a project surveying for rare plants and natural communities in the Big South Fork of Kentucky. Hidden in the biologically diverse region of the Cumberland Plateau, we share this region with Tennessee, where headwater streams flow north into Kentucky and create river scour communities along the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. The Big South Fork is by far one of my favorite places on Earth. The diversity of species, both plants and animals, even undescribed taxon, is astounding. And the river scour communities within this region contain more globally rare plants than anywhere else in Kentucky! This species diversity is only compounded by the complexity of the riparian communities from emergent marshes, outcrops, grasslands, shrublands and woodlands that are maintained by the wild river scour. It’s one of the few places still left in Kentucky where pre-settlement natural conditions still exist, it’s as if you are seeing a landscape that was seen by Native Americans, a true wilderness. And this is also one of our states largest intact forest blocks. It feels ancient, diverse and wise.

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From the Lady Slipper Archives: Aristolochiaceae: Insects, Humans and the Birthwort Family

The Lady Slipper newsletter, and now blog, 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. In this article from 2007, Amy McIntosh discusses members of the Birthwort Family, Aristolochiaceae . This article ran in Vol. 22, No. 2. If you would like to see these and other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 40, 2025, can be found.

Aristolochiaceae: Insects, Humans and the Birthwort Family

by Amy McIntosh

Introduction

Members of the Birthwort Family, Aristolochiaceae, have a complex array of relationships with insects and humans. Interactions with pollinators, non-pollinating butterflies, and seed/fruit dispersers (along with the plants’ pollination mechanisms and the creation and use aromatic oils) provide insight into the family’s co-evolution with insects.

Human relationships with the birthwort family have a long history involving herbal and food use. Current interests in the family include collection of garden and greenhouse specimens, breeding of ornamental varieties and determining effectiveness of possible anticancer chemicals within some species. Human degradation of habitat in areas of endemic and otherwise limited populations has threatened 35 species at last count.

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