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 2010, the late Tom Barnes, wildflower photographer and former president of Kentucky, takes an in-depth look at the gentians (Gentianaceae family) . This article ran in Vol. 25, No. 4. 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. 39, 2024, can be found.

Gentians: All Fall Color is Not Red, Yellow and Orange

Thomas G. Barnes, Ph.D.
Extension Wildlife Specialist, Department of Forestry, University of Kentucky

Fall is the time of the year when the leaf peepers begin their road trips across the Commonwealth in search of reds, yellows, oranges, and other colors in the tree canopy. For wildflower enthusiasts it is a time of the year when they think of other activities since the goldenrods and asters are done flowering and the drabness of winter is quickly approaching. For those who do love searching for unique wildflowers, like so many do for our native orchids, this is the time of the year to search for fall flowering members of the gentian family, those that typically have beautiful blue flowers. When you think of the rarity of the native orchids found in Kentucky, approximately 38% are listed as rare, special concern, threatened or endangered. Of the fall gentians, 68% fall in those same categories. So if looking for rare plants is your venue, then the fall gentians are an excellent group to focus on. I hope to share with you some information about gentians in general and then which species can be found in Kentucky.

Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

Over the last several years, we have seen an explosion of interest in the growing of native milkweed plants (Asclepias genus), largely driven by the plight of the iconic monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). As most of us are aware, monarch caterpillars only host on milkweeds. Without milkweed leaves to feed on, monarch caterpillars cannot not survive.

Asclepias is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans and many other species, primarily due to the presence of cardenolides.

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 2005, Robert Paratley, Curator, University of Kentucky Herbarium, takes an in-depth look at the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. This article ran in Vol. 20, 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. 39, 2024, can be found.

The world of the dogbane family Apocynaceae

Robert Paratley
Curator, University of Kentucky Herbarium

Indian-hemp or dogbane, Apocynum cannabinum, is a tall, branching perennial found in most parts of Kentucky. It is very common in old fields, roadsides and other disturbed habitats, but is not particularly conspicuous in flower, with small greenish-white flowers whose petals are fused into a small urns hape. Indian-hemp is more conspicuous in fruit, where the two parts of the pistil separate at maturity and elongate into narrow, dark, long-pointed follicles (pods). These are filled with numerous light, tufted seeds adapted to catch the wind, making it an effective seed disperser. Break the plant and the sap is milky white. Another species, the spreading dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium), is similar but smaller than Indian-hemp and is widespread in northern U.S. It is listed as rare in Kentucky. Both species are on any serious list of poisonous plants. Numerous cases of livestock poisoning have been recorded, although apparently no human cases are known. (Turner and Szczawinski, 1991).

Both are members of the Apocynaceae, a large, mostly tropical family of mostly woody members. This article will highlight the features of this complex, diverse family that barely gets a toehold in the temperate zone. The Latin genus name Apocynum was coined by Linnaeus. He combined two Greek roots, apo meaning “away” or “off”, and cyn meaning “dog” – a dog repellent. The common name echoes this idea. (Perhaps dogs found the scent of the European dogbane Apocynum venetum unpleasant and kept away from it.) Apocynum became the namesake genus for the family Apocynaceae, whose name is credited to the French botanist Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu in the early 1800s. Until recently, the concept of the family remained fairly consistent, including about 200 genera and 2,000 species (Cronquist, 1981). Recent research has expanded the concept of the family to include the milkweeds, which have traditionally been taught as a distinct but closely related family. Following older fashion, I will not discuss milkweeds here.