Kentucky Native Plant Society is pleased to announce the recipients of 2026 Pollinator Garden Grants. These grants will help the recipients purchase native pollinator plants, seeds or both to set up a pollinator garden. These gardens will allow various audiences the opportunity to see native pollinator plants and the pollinators they serve. Hopefully visitors to the gardens will be inspired to install a pollinator garden of their own or incorporate some native pollinator plants into home landscapes.
The 2026 Pollinator Garden Grant recipients are, in no particular order,
Debbie Brown, Good Shepherd Catholic School Frankfort, KY 40601
Richard Olson, Sustainable Berea Berea KY 40403
Charlie Combs, Louisville Nature Center Louisville, KY
Christine Argus, Lake View Park Sponsored by Franklin County Solid Waste Frankfort, KY 40601
Mary Jewell, New Haven Head Start New Haven, KY 40051
KNPS will be announcing the pollinator garden grant application period in the spring. Watch the KNPS newsletter, The Lady’s-slipper for details.
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 2011, Tara Littlefield discusses the rare Kentucky shrub, sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina) . This article ran in Vol. 26, No. 1. 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.
Sweet fern—A rare Kentucky shrub with an interesting history
By Tara Littlefield, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves
Comptonia peregrina, OKNP file photo
The wax myrtle or bayberry family (Myricaceae) is known for its odor. These plants have resinous dots on their leaves, making their leaves aromatic. Plants in this family have a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, missing only from Australasia. Myricaceae members are mostly shrubs to small trees and often grow in xeric or swampy acidic soils. More familiar members of the wax myrtle family include many in the Genus Myrica (sweet gale, wax myrtle), some of which are used as ornamentals and are economically important. In addition, the wax coating on the fruit of several species of Myrica, has been used traditionally to make candles.
So what does this interesting family have in common with Kentucky’s flora? We are lucky to have just one species in the wax myrtle family, Sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina). In addition, it is also a monotypic genus restricted to eastern North America. This means that the genus Comptonia has only one species (C. peregrina) worldwide, and just happens to be found here in KY! Of course the common name sweet fern is misleading. This woody shrub is certainly not a fern. However, the leaves have a similar shape to pinnules of a fern frond (leaf). But having sweet in the common name is no mistake. If you crush the leaves throughout the growing season, a lovely smell is emitted as the essential oils volatilize into the air.
Female flowers (short round catkins with reddish bracts) and male flowers (elongated catkins clustered at the branch tips) – www.nativehaunts.comphenology.html
Sweet fern is a clonal shrub that grows up to one meter high and spreads through rhizomes. The leaves are alternate and simple, linear and coarsely irregularly toothed, dark green above and a bit paler below. It is monoecious (meaning male and female flowers on different plants). The female flowers are not showy— short rounded catkins [dense cluster of apetalous flowers, usually associated with oaks, birches and willows] with reddish bracts. The male flowers are elongated yellow-green catkins clustered at the branch tips, the pollen being adapted to wind dispersal. The fruit is a round, bur-like cluster of ovoid nutlets that turn brown when mature in late summer. The bark is reddish and highly lenticeled (small corky pores or narrow lines on the bark that allow for gas exchange).
While very common in the northern part of its range (northeastern United States and Canada), sweet fern is state listed endangered in Kentucky, along with being state listed as rare in Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina. The populations of sweet fern in the southern part of its range are isolated and disjunct from the common habitats up north. There seems to be a close association of these remnant populations with the Appalachian Mountains, which suggests that the populations in the southern ranges remained in protected “refugia” during periods of great plant migrations, such as during glaciations.
Sweet fern is typically found in openings in coniferous forests with well drained dry, acidic sandy or gravely soils with periodic disturbances. In the north, it can be found in pine-oak barrens or jack pine and spruce forests that are maintained by fire, creating openings and decreasing competition. It has also been noted to colonize road banks and even highly disturbed soils such as mined areas. Contrary to these open coniferous habitats with periodic fire, the remnant populations of sweet fern in Kentucky and Tennessee are found on sandstone cobble bars, which are maintained by annual floods. Despite being found on habitats that are maintained by different disturbance regimes, these two communities share a few things in common—they are both dry, acidic, sandy and nutrient poor. Disturbances are a natural occurring impact in these communities that removes shrubs and saplings, thus decreasing competition so that sweet fern can thrive.
Sweet fern has adapted to these specialized habitats. It is a fires adapted species; it will resprout after a fire and increase its clonal sprouts through underground rhizomes. It is also a xerophyte, a plant adapted to dry conditions. And since it is adapted to living in nutrient poor, acidic soils, it has evolved with the bacteria Frankia that fixes nitrogen, somewhat like the more famous nitrogen fixing legumes who have partnered with the bacteria Rhizobium. Did you know that there are over 160 species of nonleguminous plants that fix nitrogen? It is also the host of the sweet fern blister rust (Cronartium comptoniae) which reduces the growth of pines, particularly Jack pine. What interesting relationships this shrub has with bacteria and fungi! In addition, sweet fern is the food plant to larvae of many species of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). These include the Io moth (Automeris io), and several Coleophora case-bearers (some of which are found exclusively on sweet fern).
But perhaps the most fascinating facts about the rare shrub sweet fern is what it can tell us about the evolution of plants, the history of the earth, and the paleovegetational past of Kentucky. Geologically speaking, sweet fern is an old plant. In Kentucky, it was most likely more common some 20,000 years ago during the last glaciation, as Kentucky used to look like Canada. Analysis of pollen in sediment cores taken from natural ponds in Kentucky confirms this, spruce and jack pine was common in the uplands in the bluegrass. Sometimes it is difficult to think of plants migrating north and south in order to adapt to a changing climate. But what is even more mind blowing is that the genus Comptonia is perhaps millions of years old. Numerous fossils of dozens of extinct species of Comptonia have been found all across the Northern hemisphere, and the earliest of the fossils have been dated back to the Cretaceous period (the age of the Dinosaurs) over 65 million years ago. The first flowering plants (angiosperms) evolved only 135 million years ago, so Comptonia is one of the oldest living plants in the world—a true living fossil!
So when April comes around, and all of the spring wildflowers are emerging, think of sweet fern tucked deep into the gorges of Big South Fork and Rockcastle, its catkins releasing pollen in the wind, using the nitrogen fixed from its bacterial friends, withstanding the massive floods of two of Kentucky’s last wild rivers. And if you use your imagination, you may be able to see dinosaurs and tree ferns in the distance.
Berry, Edward W. 1906. Living and Fossil Species of Comptonia. The American Naturalist. Vol. 40, No. 475, pp. 485-524.
Darlington, Emlen. 1948. Notes on some North American Lepidoptera reared on Sweet Fern (Compontia asplenifolia Linnaeus) with Description of new species. Transactions of the American Entomological Society (1890-). Vol. 74, No. ¾, pp. 173-185.
Liag, X., Wilde, V., Ferguon, D., Kvacek, Z, Ablaev, A., Wang, Y., and Li, C. 2010. Comptonia naumannii
(Myricaceae) from the early Miocene of Weichang, China, and the paleobiogeographical implication of the genus. Review of Paleobotany and Palynology. Vol. 163, p. 52-63.
Medley, Max and Eugene Wofford. 1980. Thuja occidentalis L. and other noteworthy collections from the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in McCreary County, Kentucky. Castanea. Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 213-215.
Natureserve Explorer, 2010.
Wilkins, Gary, Delcourt, Paul, Delcourt, Hazel, Harrison, Frederick, and Turner, Manson. 1991. Paleoecology of central Kentucky since the last glacial maximum. Quaternary Research. Vol. 36, Issue 2.
Virginia Tech Woody Database https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=869
Zomlefer, W. 1994. Guide to Flowering Plant Families. University of NC Press, Chapel Hill.
“Coming together to discuss current botanical projects, conservation, and collaboration in Kentucky and beyond”
On Wednesday, January 14, 2026, the Kentucky Native Plant Society and the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves held our 5th annual, virtual, Botanical Symposium. Close to 200 folks were able to attend online to hear and see several presentations about our native plants and plant communities. We know that there are many who would have liked to participate, but were not able to do so. Below are videos of all of the presentations.
KNPS Updates, Jeff Nelson KNPS Immediate Past President
Length: 11:16
Curators Corner, a round of updates from Kentucky’s major herbarium curators
Length: 30:57
State of Kentucky Plant Conservation, Tara Littlefield, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves
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, Maggie Whitson discusses the botany of the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana). This article ran in Vol. 22, No. 1. 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.
The Pleasing Persimmon
by Maggie Whitson
With large orange fruit dangling from bare branches like Halloween ornaments, the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana L.) puts on a striking late fall display along our fields and roadsides. The numerous sweet fruits were notable enough to find their way into the genus name, which means “fruit (-pyros) of the gods (dios).”
Drawing of American Persimmon, Britton and Brown
Persimmons are common in Kentucky and occur throughout the state. The species is found as far south as Florida and ranges up the Gulf Coast to Connecticut. It laps from the Southeast on to the Midwest and peters out around eastern Texas. Like many widespread plants, persimmons have a variety of common names, ranging from picturesque to puzzling. To list a few: dateplum, seeded-plum, winter-plum, simmon, lotus-tree, Jove’s fruit, and possum-wood.
Though the typical persimmon has a trunk ranging from about 6″ to 24″ in diameter, given optimum growing conditions and plenty of time, they can get much larger. Kentucky’s champion persimmon is located in Ballard County, and is 113.5 inches around, or about 36″ wide. The U.S. champion tree is in Portsmouth, Ohio, and is a whopping 142″ in circumference and 82 feet high.
Persimmon bark, www.wm.edu
Due to their deeply ridged bark which forms block-like plates, persimmons are easily recognized even in the leafless condition. The twigs are also distinctive, if only internally, as they often have diaphragmed piths. That is, when a twig is cut at an angle, its exposed center displays ladder-like divisions. Persimmon leaves are relatively nondescript, being simple, entire, alternate, and ovate. However, the undersides are often marked with fine black speckles (probably tannins).
While persimmons look similar throughout their range, they actually vary in chromosome number. A 60 chromosome race is common in the Southeast, while a 90 chromosome race is found throughout most of the Midwest. It is thought that there may also be a 30 chromosome race in southern Florida. These races do not readily hybridize with one another.
Persimmon flower, www.duke.edu
Persimmons bloom in May and June and are typically dioecious, with separate male and female trees. However, individuals capable of self-pollination are occasionally found, and sometimes a tree will produce flowers of both sexes one year and flowers of only one sex the next. The small, bell-shaped white flowers are eagerly pollinated by bees, and their industrious buzzing may be more obvious than the flowers, which are nearly invisible high up in the leafy branches. Persimmons belong to the Ebenaceae, or ebony family, which has only three genera. Diospyros is by far the largest, and with about 450 species single-handedly saves the family from obscurity. Most persimmon relatives are woody, and this pantropical group is well-represented on the Malay peninsula, in Africa and Madagascar, and in Central and South America. Interestingly, while people eat the fruit of many species in this genus, the few temperate species are the most famous fruit producers.
As a member of the ebony family, it is perhaps unsurprising that D. virginiana’s other claim to fame is its incredibly hard heartwood. In the Old World tropics, D. ebenum and D. reticulata are the best producers of ebony, though most species in the genus also produce hard, dark wood. Here in the U.S., the wood of D. virginiana was best known for its use in golf clubs, but was also used to produce other items such as tool handles, mallets, shuttles, and the lasts on which shoes were made and repaired. These days, synthetic materials are more commonly used for many of these products.
The Southwestern U.S. hosts our only other native Diospyros, the chapote, or D. texana. It has fuzzy, blackish fruit which are edible as well as being used as a source of natural dye. These shrubs or small trees range from Texas into northern Mexico, and like D. virginiana, the hard wood has been used locally for products requiring durability. The bark is smooth and attractively peeling, giving these plants potential value as ornamentals
In the temperate zones, there are three species of persimmons commonly eaten. The Asian persimmon, D. kaki, is widely cultivated in China and Japan and is now appearing more frequently in American supermarkets.
The date plum, D. lotus, is a similar species from Eurasia and has long been eaten in Europe. Finally, our own D. virginiana was particularly enjoyed by both the native Americans and early settlers. Persimmons are mentioned in the writings of early explorers such as Don Fernando de Soto and Captain John Smith. By 1626, many English gardens sported American persimmon trees. However, since fruits were most often simply harvested from wild trees, there are few improved varieties available today. Most of our native persimmons are cultivated for wood, as ornamentals, or as grafting stock for Asian persimmons.
Persimmon fruit gathered and photographed by author
Ripening throughout the Fall, the 1″-2″ fruits approach tangerine orange (or occasionally blackish-brown) upon maturity. They vary widely in shape, ranging from nearly round, to somewhat flattened, to long ovals. (One can see similar variation in cultivated Asian persimmons.) Shape aside, they’re all full of seeds. A single persimmon berry can contain up to eight, flat, woody seeds. At almost 1/2″ long by 1/3″ wide, the seeds themselves are quite large. During the shortages of the Civil War, Southerners supposedly drilled holes in them and used them as buttons. The large seeds don’t deter true fans from eating the ripe berries, which are a favorite of wildlife, hunters, children, livestock, and occasionally dogs
Though there is some interest in improving fruiting varieties of our native persimmon, only limited progress has been made. While ripe persimmons have a rich and intensely sweet flavor, even slightly unripe fruit are astringent with tannins, and will leave your mouth with an unpleasant, bitter, puckery feel — not unlike eating a very green banana. Though non-astringent Asian varieties have been bred, this breakthrough has not yet been achieved in the American persimmon. Thus, the fruit can only be harvested when dead ripe. In fact, the best persimmons are usually those that have just fallen from the tree. Since ripe persimmons are almost pudding-like in texture, they often split when they fall and certainly do not ship well. Persimmons are also generally flecked with dark tannin deposits, which doesn’t effect the flavor, but does make them look imperfect. Add all this to the relatively small fruit and large seeds, and American persimmons so far remain in the realm of home-garden curiosities, rather than commercial fruit production.
None-the-less, both the Indiana Nut Growers Association (INGA) and the North American Fruit Explorers have several webpages dedicated to American persimmons and the challenges involved in selecting quality fruiting cultivars. Jim Claypool of Illinois may be the most famous amateur persimmon breeder, and he amassed a collection of over 2,000 trees. When his health failed, INGA inherited much of his collection, which they continue to use for breeding work. The Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station also keeps a persimmon germplasm collection and has an orchard planted with 21 cultivars selected from Claypool’s trees.
Several mail-order nurseries carry American persimmon cultivars, including ‘Meader’, ‘Early Golden’, ‘Garretson’, ‘John Rick’, and ‘Prok’. More unusual are the hybrid varieties made by crossing American and Asian persimmons. The most common are ‘Nikita’s Gift’ and ‘Russian Beauty’, both of which were bred in the Ukraine. They have slightly larger fruit than the typical American persimmon while being much cold hardier than the Asian species. One Green World Nursery in Oregon and Raintree Nursery in Washington state both carry American cultivars, Asian cultivars, and the hybrids.
Not only can American persimmons be eaten fresh or dried, but they have been cooked in a variety of ways. Settlers commonly made persimmon puddings, bread, and preserves. In addition to eating the fruit, they fermented it and made persimmon beer, brandy, and wine. Today, there is still a limited market for frozen persimmon pulp, which can be used in anything from ice cream to cookies to cakes. Persimmons generally work well in recipes designed for pumpkin, and introducing 50% persimmon pulp into a pumpkin pie recipe is a simple and tasty way to enter the field of persimmon cookery.
While American persimmons may never surpass bananas, apples, and oranges at the supermarket, they are attractive, easily grown trees with a long and interesting history. A ripe persimmon makes a wonderful late fall treat, and is a ecologically friendly way to enjoy the woodland resources of our state. So next time you’re out enjoying the fall wildflowers, don’t miss the opportunity to admire the persimmons, as well.
SELECTED REFERENCES:
Anonymous. 2006. The story of James Claypool. Indiana Nut Growers Association website: www.nutgrowers.org/persimmon.htm Accessed 10/06.
American Forests. 2007. The National Register of Big Trees website: www.americanforests.org/resources/ bigtrees/ Accessed 03/07.
Baldwin, J. T. Jr. and R. Culp. 1941. Polyploidy in Diospyros Virginiana L. American Journal of Botany 28(10): 942-944.
Harrar E. S. and J. G. Harrar. 1962. Guide to southern trees. Dover Publications, Inc., New York. Heywood, V. H., editor. 1993. Flowering Plants of the World. Updated edition. Oxford University Press, New York.
Kentucky Division of Forestry. 2007. The Kentucky Big Tree Program website: http://www.forestry.ky.gov/programs/kybigtree/ Accessed 03/07.
Lehman, J. W. 2006. The American persimmon. North American Fruit Explorers website: www.nafex.org/ persimmon.htm. Accessed 10/06.
Medsger, O. P. 1973. Edible wild plants. 3rd printing. Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., New York.
Spongberg, S. A. 1979. Notes on persimmons, kakis, date plums, and chapotes. Arnoldia 39 (5): 290-310.
Thomas, A. L. 2006. Persimmon research orchard and germplasm collection. Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station website: www.aes.missouri.edu/swcenter/ fieldday/2005/ page78.stm. Accessed 10/06.
Vines, R. A. 1977. Trees of East Texas. University of Texas Press, Austin.
We had another awesome week of wildflower appreciation during KNPS’s 6th annual Botany Blitz! The Botany Blitz is a wildflower-focused bioblitz where participants try to document as many plant species as possible during the week before Wildflower Weekend. This year’s Blitz ran from April 11 through April 19. As in previous years, the Botany Blitz was hosted on the iNaturalist platform, which makes it easy for participants to document, share, and identify their observations through iNaturalist’s website and mobile app. We also hosted a series of “Kick Off Hikes” across the state again this year: on Saturday April 11, and Sunday April 12, several local naturalists and experienced iNaturalist users led guided hikes in preserves, parks, and other natural areas across the Commonwealth. Many thanks to the hike leaders for helping us kick off the Blitz!
This year was a great year for observations, with 50 observers making 3,511 observations of plants in 742 species, the largest number of species every observed during Botany Blitz. Observations were made across the Commonwealth, from the mountains of eastern Kentucky to the grasslands and oak-hickory forests of the Jackson Purchase. Observations were made in 45 counties in the state. In the map below, every orange square is a location where observations were made.
You can see all 3,511 observations at the KNPS Wildflower Week 2026 Botany Blitz page. Here are a few notable observations.
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 2014, Dropseed Native Plant Nursery owner, Margaret Shea, discusses the value of native plants to the home vegetable garden. This article ran in Vol. 29, No. 1. 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.
How Native Plants Can Help Your Veggies
By Margaret Shea, Dropseed Nursery
Symphyotrichum novae angliae; Photo by Tom Barnes
Are you shocked to hear that there are 4,000 bee species native to the US? I was! Pests and diseases have hurt populations of imported Honey Bees over the past several years, causing farmers to worry about pollination of their crops. Many vegetables and fruits require pollination by bees, and insufficient numbers of bees can be one reason for reduced crop yield. You can increase the abundance of native bees in your vegetable patch or farm by providing them with food and habitat.
Ratibida pinnata; Photo by Nick Drozda
A couple native bees you might be familiar with are Bumble Bees and Sweat Bees. Some bees that were new to me include the Mason Bees, Adrenid Bees and Leafcutter Bees. These native bees nest in the ground, wood, or hollow plant stems. Many of the native bees are solitary and do not live in a large hive like the honey bees. Since they do not have a hive to protect, native bees tend to be less aggressive and are unlikely to sting. Having some untilled soil and other vegetation around your vegetable garden will provide habitat for these bees. Growing native plants near your vegetable garden will provide additional nectar and pollen – attracting bees and allowing their populations to grow. A source of water is also important for native bees as well as honey bees.
Lobelia puberula; Photo by Tom Barnes
Native plants that are especially attractive to bees include: Golden Alexanders, Hairy Beardtongue, Culver’s Root, Bee Balm, Slender Mt. Mint, and Smooth Blue Aster. Using a mix of species that flower throughout the season will give bees a constant source of food, and keep them near your vegetable garden throughout the growing season.
There are other insects that are good to have around your vegetable garden – and native plants can draw these species in as well. Insects like Lady Bugs and the Minute Pirate Bug are predators, eating pest insects like aphids, whiteflies and mealybugs. Other beneficial insects are called parasitoids – these insects lay their eggs in a host insect – their young eat and kill the host. Many parasatoids are wasp species, although these wasps do not sting. Parasitoids can kill pests like caterpillars and beetles. Beneficial predators and parasitoids also feed on nectar and are attracted to species including Rattlesnake Master, Boneset, New England Aster, Cup Plant, Blue Lobelia, and Yellow Coneflower. Growing these plants near your vegetable garden can help to create a balanced system, with pest insects under control. Plus, make it much prettier!!
In 2025 KNPS decided to try something new to foster a greater connection between the Society and the state’s higher education community by hosting student poster sessions to highlight the botanical (or botanically adjacent) research happening in Kentucky. The 2025 sessions were a great success, with 7 students presenting their research. Because of the success of the Student Research Poster Sessions in 2025, KNPS is again hosting these sessions at Wildflower Weekend 2026.
Join us to learn about the botanical research Kentucky’s higher education students are conducting during KNPS’s 2nd Wildflower Weekend Student Poster Session! This year we are thrilled that we have 12 students from universities across Kentucky presenting their research. The posters will be displayed in the Woodland Center all day Saturday and you can walk through and enjoy them at your own pace.
Click on the image to download the Student Poster Session Abstracts
There will be two sessions where the students will be with their posters and will be available to discuss their research and answer any questions you may have about them. Student Research Poster Session #1 will be on Saturday, April 18, from 8:00 to 9:00AM and will feature six of the students. Student Research Poster Session #2 will be on Saturday, April 18, from 12:30 to 1:30PM with the second group of six students. The students and their research topics are listed below. You can download a PDF of the full abstracts of all of the poster sessions by clicking on the image to the right.
Student Research Poster Session #1 – Saturday, April 18, 8:00 – 9:00AM
Alexander Boyken, University of Kentucky Influences of Bark pH and Hardness on Epiphytic Lichen Cover among Rural and Urban Central Hardwood Trees
Will Gibson, University of Kentucky Quantifying Habitat Characteristics of Venus Flytraps in Fire-Dominated Longleaf Pine Savanna
Isabella Gilliam, Morehead State University Species/Area Relationships of Lichens and Bryophytes within a Stream Mesohabitat at the Ed Mabry – Laurel Gorge Wildlife Management Area
Zach Hackworth, University of Kentucky Allelopathic Effects of Dahurian Buckthorn (Rhamnus davurica) on Seed Germination
Ira Hager, Eastern Kentucky University Ecology and Seed Germination of Monarda clinopodia
Savannah Merriman, Morehead State University Investigating Species Richness and Beta Diversity of Lichen and Bryophyte Communities within a Stream Mesohabitat of the Ed Mabry-Laurel Gorge Wildlife Management Area in Northeastern Kentucky
Student Research Poster Session #2 – Saturday, April 18, 12:30 – 1:30PM
Makaya Brashares, University of Kentucky Documenting Connections: A Framework For Database Deposition of Molecular Data And Interacting Taxa
Emily Campbell, University of Kentucky Effect of Tornado Damage and Post-Tornado Management on Forest Soil Microbial Communities in South-Central Kentucky
Patricia Leake, University of Kentucky Identifying Bee-Plant Interaction Networks in Diversified Organic Kentucky Farms Using Molecular Tools
Zoe McComas, University of Kentucky The Impact of Emerald Ash Borers and Purple Wintercreeper on Ash Trees in Reforested Urban Sites
Allison Neltner, University of Kentucky Field and Postharvest Production Methods of Natural Yellow and Orange Dyes from Tagetes erecta, Tagetes patula, and Cosmos sulphureus
Alexandra Taylor, University of Kentucky Genetic Diversity of Asteraceae on the University of Kentucky’s Campus
