Jeff Nelson, Author at Kentucky Native Plant Society

Save the Date! KNPS Wildflower Weekend 2024 – April 12th-14th, 2024

We have exciting news for all of our members and friends! KNPS is happy to announce this year’s Wildflower Weekend has been scheduled for April 12th-14th, 2024 at Natural Bridge State Resort Park!

But wait, there is even more cause for jubilation! This year we are celebrating 35 years of Wildflower Weekend! That’s right! Naturalists and nature lovers from all across Kentucky have been gathering in the spirit of botanical appreciation, fellowship and education at Wildflower Weekend since May 1989! We are proud to host this year’s event at Natural Bridge SRP, the original location of the very first KNPS Wildflower Weekend (scroll down to page 3).

Help Us Celebrate with Your Photos!

To help celebrate our 35 years of Wildflower Weekend, we are planning to put together a montage of photos from prior Weekends that we will show during the Saturday evening talks. It would be great if everyone would look through their old Wildflower Weekend photos and pick out a few that you would like to share. If any of our longtime members have actual photos from the days before digital cameras a scan of those would be extra special.

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Wildflower Weekend 2024 Logo Design Contest, We Have A Winner!

This year, in the spirit of bringing together creative expression and love for nature, the KNPS Board decided to have a Wildflower Weekend 2024 Logo Design Contest. This was an open design contest to come up with a logo for Wildflower Weekend 2024. The logo will be used on t-shirts, hoodies, and coffee cups, as well as on all publicity about the event.

We put out a call to artists and graphic designers who were members of the Kentucky Native Plant Society in early December. We asked the designers to submit designs that incorporated either the great white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) or the stinking Benjamin, a.k.a. red trillium (T. erectum) or both. These charismatic species are commonly found decorating the floors of the rich forests in the Natural Bridge/Red River Gorge area. The submitted designs were then presented to the KNPS membership for voting during the month of January.

We did not know what the response would be so we were thrilled when we received 11 gorgeous designs, well beyond our expectations! The members of KNPS responded in kind, surpassing our expectations as we received nearly 140 votes, by far the biggest response we have ever received for an online poll. Voting came down to a nail-biting close race, and we had to have a runoff between the top two designs. At the end of the runoff, the beautiful logo featured above came out on top as the winning entry. The design, a contemporary interpretation of the iconic Trillium species crafted into a logo with a care-free and breezy sentiment of Spring, was submitted by Rick Mullenix of London, KY.

Rick Mullenix, Winner

“I have been a graphic designer for 19 years, and am a new member of the KNPS. I appreciate being part of this group and look forward to learning a lot. This design was a joy to work on. It is in the style of a badge design, I felt this would work well across the different mediums it would be printed in. My goal was to evoke a breezy, spring-style feel with the colors and the layout. Even though the trilliums both had distinct parts, I loved seeing the different interpretations of them in all the submissions.”

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Register for the 2024 Annual (Virtual) Kentucky Botanical Symposium

Friday, February 2, 2024, 9:00AM-11:30AM EST, Virtual & Free

“Coming together to discuss current botanical projects, conservation, and collaboration in Kentucky and beyond”

The Kentucky Native Plant Society (KNPS) and the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves (OKNP) is co-hosting the 4th annual Kentucky Botanical Symposium on Friday, February 2nd, from 9:00AM-11:30AM EST. For ten years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium with a goal of bringing together professionals, community scientists, academics, researchers, gardeners, and students to learn about what is going on in the world of Kentucky botany and beyond.

This year, speakers and facilitators include Jeff Nelson providing KNPS updates, Tara Littlefield (OKNP) providing current state updates related to Kentucky plant conservation, Bashira Chowdhury (Mississippi State University) discussing Prices potato bean (Apios priceana) and pollinators, Vanessa Volker (OKNP) presenting awards for the Kentucky Botanist Big Year project on iNaturalist, Dr. Sally Chambers (Eastern Kentucky University) discussing filmy fern (Vandenboschia boschiana), Dr. Shawn Krosnick and Chris Waters (Tennessee Tech) covering pollinator interactions in rare plants and Invasive Plant Assessments by Frannie Preston and Dr. Ellen Crocker (University of Kentucky and Invasive Plant Council-KY-IPC).

We are also accepting updates from our plant partners to be featured in the botanical stakeholders highlights portion of the meeting. You can submit a PowerPoint slide including information about news or events to be featured during the symposium break. If you want to update Kentucky’s botanical community about recent native plant related news, projects, or upcoming events, check the appropriate box in the registration form below. Upon submitting your registration you will be directed to a page where you will be able to upload your slide.

KNPS is also taking nominations and giving out awards for significant conservation actions in Kentucky in 2023. As you register for the Botanical Symposium you will have the option to nominate organizations or individuals in the following categories:

Plant Conservation Organization Award: An agency or organization that has contributed significantly to Kentucky plant conservation in 2023
Plant Conservation Individual Award: A person who has contributed significantly to Kentucky conservation in 2023
Ex situ conservation Award: Person or agency that has significantly contributed to ex situ plant conservation in Kentucky in 2023
Plant Research Award: Person or agency that has significantly contributed to plant research in Kentucky in 2023
Stewardship Award: Person or agency that has significantly contributed to native plant community stewardship in KY in 2023
Community Science Award: Person or agency that has significantly contributed to community science in KY in 2023

We hope you will be able to attend the Botanical Symposium. If you have any questions, please contact us at BotanicalSymposium@knps.org.

Tentative Agenda

Finalized agenda will be distributed at a later date to those who register. The following list is tentative and non-comprehensive.

Welcome & General Symposium Rules Overview, Kendall McDonald, KNPS Vice-President

Kentucky Native Plant Society Updates, Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

State of Kentucky Plant Conservation, Tara Littlefield, OKNP Plant Conservation/Biological Assessment Branch Manager

Prices potato bean (Apios priceana) and pollinators, Bashira Chowdhury, Mississippi State Univeristy

Invasive Plant Assessments for Kentucky, Frannie Preston and Dr. Ellen Crocker, University of Kentucky, Invasive Pest Council

Filmy Ferns in Kentucky, Dr. Sally Chambers, Eastern Kentucky University herbarium curator

Break with stakeholder and upcoming events slideshow

Studying pollinator interactions in rare plant species: old dog, new tricks, Dr. Shawn Krosnick and Chris Waters, Tennessee Tech

Kentucky Botanists Big Year iNaturalist overview and awards, Vanessa Voelker, OKNP

Conservation Awards Ceremony and Tribute to Bob Dunlap

Questions and Discussions Section

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KNPS 2023, The Year in Review

As we begin a new year it can be fun and informative to look back and reflect on the Society’s activities in 2023. Beginning in January and ending in November, with events and activities across the Commonwealth, KNPS had another great year spreading the message of the value, importance, and beauty of the native plants and ecosystems of Kentucky. We hope you enjoy these images and descriptions of the Society’s 2023 activities and that you will be able to join us in the field in 2024.

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Bob Dunlap (1955-2023)

Robert “Bob” Dunlap
Feb. 5, 1955 – Oct. 13, 2023

On Friday, October 13, 2023, our friend Robert “Bob” Dunlap died, a terrible loss to the Kentucky botanical community. Bob loved nature and his love for the natural world was evident in how he spent his time. Bob liked to say of himself that he was “an amateur naturalist living near Paducah who owns every Peterson Field Guide that was ever published”.

In 2005, Bob was awarded the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission Volunteer Steward of the Year. He was a longtime member of the Kentucky Native Plant Society. He wrote several articles on native plants that were published in scientific journals and the KNPS Lady Slipper newsletter (see a list of his Lady Slipper articles at the end of this memorial). Bob was a wonderful nature photographer and you can see some of his photographs at his iNaturalist Observations page. Bob was also a certified Master Naturalist. He loved to share his knowledge by giving presentations on native plants and leading nature walks in the area. He was a self-taught botanist who found new locations for rare plants and assisted in plant surveys (with state nature preserves botanists beginning over 20 years ago). Recently he was researching management strategies for a rare lily species, re-visiting the populations to determine whether light, competition or other factors are causing decline, to determine the best long term conservation strategy.

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Calling all Artists & Graphic Designers! Enter the Wildflower Weekend 2024 Logo Design Contest

If you are an artist or graphic designer we would love for you to consider entering the Wildflower Weekend 2024 Logo Design Contest. This is an open design contest to come up with a logo for Wildflower Weekend 2024 (April 12-14 at Natural Bridge SRP). The logo will be used on t-shirts, hoodies, and coffee cups, as well as on all publicity about the event. The submitted designs will be presented to the KNPS membership for voting and the winner will be awarded $200 and be recognized on the KNPS website.

In June of 2022, a KNPS member posted the image on the right on the KNPS Facebook group page of a t-shirt she had found in a thrift store. Asking among several longtime members, it turns out that in the 1990s, and into the early 2000’s, KNPS produced t-shirts for each Wildflower Weekend. Last year the KNPS Board decided to bring back this great tradition for Wildflower Weekend 2023.

In early 2023, we began the process of creating a logo by presenting our members and friends with a slideshow of 13 native species and asking them to select their top three choices. The yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum) was the narrow winner. The Board then asked KNPS member Kendall MacDonald to design a logo for the 2023 Wildflower Weekend. The beautiful image she created featured the yellow trout lily with Cumberland Falls as the background. The image was used in all publicity for the event and was also featured on an adult t-shirt, a coffee mug, a kid’s t-shirt, and an adult hoodie that were available for sale in our KNPS Gear Shop.

The star of the logo will be the native plant. Although the yellow trout lily was the plant that was first choice by a majority of those voting last year, the Trillium genus received almost as many votes and will be the flower to be featured on this year’s logo. Two species of Trillium received the same number of votes; the great white trillium (T. grandiflorum) and stinking Benjamin, a.k.a. red trillium (T. erectum). Both species are commonly found in the Natural Bridge/Red River Gorge area. Artists can choose to use either species or both in their design.

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Save The Date for the 4th Annual, Virtual, Kentucky Botanical Symposium – February 2, 2024

Coming Together to Discuss Current Botany Projects, Conservation, and Collaboration in Kentucky and Beyond

KNPS will be hosting our 4th annual, virtual, Botanical Symposium on Friday, February 2nd, from 9AM-11:30AM EST. For several years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium in the fall/winter with a goal of bringing together professionals, citizen scientists, academics, gardeners and students in order to learn about what’s going on in the world of Kentucky Botany. Everyone interested in the native plants of Kentucky is welcome to watch the Symposium and there is no charge for this event. The Symposium will be recorded and will be made available online if you are unable to attend.

We are currently working on lining up presenters and developing the topics for the Symposium. Watch for the January Lady Slipper for details as they become available. In the meantime, you might want to watch the presentations from the 3rd Annual Botanical Symposium, the 2nd Annual Botanical Symposium, and the 1st Annual Botanical Symposium . If you have any questions, shoot us an email at KYPlants@knps.org