Kentucky Native Plant Society, Author at Kentucky Native Plant Society

On the Road with KNPS!

KNPS is taking our message of the importance and value of native plants on the road this summer. With the help of some wonderful volunteers, the Society had booths at two festivals the first weekend of August.

**^{Volunteers from left to right: Alexandra Taylor and Viktor Halmos. Not pictured was Rachel Cook}**

On August 1, KNPS participated in the CRAVE Food + Music Festival in Gatton Park, in downtown Lexington. We were grouped near fellow environmental and sustainability organizations like Seedleaf, FoodChain, and Live Green Lexington. It was a great place to chat with like minded individuals and share our information with passers-by. KNPS Outreach Chair Alexandra Taylor, KNPS Vice President Rachel Cook, and KNPS member Viktor Halmos staffed the table and KNPS Volunteer Coordinator Meaghan Petix helped Alexandra with outreach material preparations.

**^{Native plant and pollinator coloring pages created for KNPS by member Bonnie Nance.}**

Meaghan and Rachel helped Alexandra create a Native Plant Personality Quiz to have as an interactive piece of the tabling experience for adults. We also had plenty of coloring pages for kids. The coloring pages were created by KNPS member Bonnie Nance and show native plants with native pollinators. The group also handed out plenty of wildflower seed packets.

Overall, the event was quite successful with many people attending early in the day before the weather changed. We interacted with a few people who had heard of KNPS but many who hadn’t! We got lots of native seeds out into the hands of these folks and hope to hear back from some people who may be interested in getting more involved!

**^{Hummingbirds of all sizes were seen during the event.}**

On August 1st & 2nd KNPS enjoyed being part of the 30th annual Hummingbird Festival at the Woodlands Nature Station in the Land Between the Lakes, in Trigg County. For 30 years, the Hummingbird Fest has celebrated the beauty of hummingbirds, plants, and pollinators at the Woodlands Nature Station! With as many as two hundred hummingbirds a day passing through the Nature Station’s backyard, August is a great time to see the ruby-throated hummingbird.

Woodlands Nature Station staff, scientists, local artisans, native plant sellers, other conservation organizations, and KNPS all had booths in the Nature Station’s backyard. More than 1,500 visitors, over 2 days, came through to watch hummers and butterflies and other pollinators buzzing about the native gardens, got an up-close look at the hummingbird banding station, learned how to create habitat in their own backyard, shopped for native plants and avian inspired art, and enjoyed games and crafts with the kids!

Favored with wonderful, early August weather, we enjoyed spending time with hundreds of visitors that were interested in learning about native plants in Kentucky. It was great that our table was set up next to the Ironweed Native Plant Nursery and Firefly Native Plant nursery. They had many of the plants we discussed with folks for sale in their booth. To focus our discussions, we prepared a handout, “Kentucky Native Plants to Attract and Feed Hummingbirds”. You can download a copy of the handout by clicking on the image next to this text.

**^{Volunteers from left to right: Liz Neihoff, Phyllis Morris, Sue Lake, and Al Lake. Volunteers not pictured, Dianne Benjamin, Toni Riley, Bonnie Koblitz, Dent Morris, and Jeff Nelson}**

Everything that the Kentucky Native Plant Society does is done by dozens of volunteers who give hundreds of hours of their time each year to make our Society’s activities happen. This event was no exception. Our Volunteer Coordinator, Meaghan Petix, put out a call for folks to help with tabling. KNPS members, Al & Sue Lake, Dianne Benjamin, Toni Riley, Liz Neihoff, Bonnie Koblitz, Phyllis & Dent Morris, and Jeff Nelson stepped up and helped Festival visitors learn about the Kentucky Native Plant Society and its mission to promote education, preservation, and protection of our native plants and native plant communities.

Every year, we get invitations to set up a booth at conservation oriented events around Kentucky. KNPS’s new Outreach coordinator, Alexandra Taylor works with our Volunteer coordinator, Meaghan Petix to select appropriate events and locate volunteers willing to help staff the Kentucky Native Plant Society table at these events. We are already looking at two events coming up in late summer and early fall. We hope to have a table at the National Public Lands Day at Cumberland Falls SRP on Saturday, September 26 and at the Plants and Pollinators Day Native Plant Sale & Educational Event at the Train Depot in Louisville on Sunday, October 11. If you think you might be interested in helping out at either of these two events, or other events when they occur in your neighborhood, just send an email to Meaghan at Volunteers@knps.org. You can also visit the KNPS Volunteer Opportunities page to express your interest in tabling at events or other ways to help KNPS achieve its mission. If you or your organization is planning a conservation oriented event and would like KNPS to participate, please email Alexandra Taylor at Outreach@knps.org.

Share Your Native Plant Gardens!

Do you have a native plant garden and want to share? Many of our KNPS members have brought their love of native plants to their home gardens. It is so wonderful to experience how pollinators and wildlife interact with natives from the comfort of our homes. Even more so, it can be an invaluable learning experience to see species from when they emerge in the spring through the fall.

We are often asked what species are best for garden settings. The KNPS Outreach and Social Media committees are interested in your gardens! If you would like to have KNPS share pictures of your garden, please email 2-5 photos with your name, where in the state your garden is located, and any other information you would like to share to Outreach@knps.org

Here are some example photos from board member Heidi Braunreiter’s amazing garden in central Kentucky.

**Culver’s Root (*Veronicastrum virginicum*)**

From the Lady Slipper Archives: Kentucky’s Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.)

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, KNPS Board Member David Taylor, discusses one of Kentucky’s most widespread milkweed, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). This article ran in Vol. 26, No. 3. 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.

Kentucky’s Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.)

By David Taylor, US Forest Service

Common milkweed is a perennial forb that spreads by means of rhizomes and seed. It is one of about 115 species that occur in the Americas. Most species are tropical or arid land species. Plants may occur as a few individuals, but once established, form small to large colonies. Individual plants range from 1 to 2 m (~ 3 to 6 ft) tall. Leaves are elliptic to ovate to oblong and somewhat thick. Mature leaves are 15-20 cm (6-8 in) long and 5 to 9 cm (~ 2 to 3.6 in) wide, with a prominent midvein. The underside of the leaf is frequently finely pubescent. The stem is stout, usually simple, and green to black (see below) in color. When broken, the leaves, as well as stem and fruit, exude milky latex. Flowers are purplish to rosy pink to mostly white or even greenish and about 2 cm (0.75 in) long and 1 cm (0.4 in) wide. They occur in semi-spherical umbels (umbrella-like clusters) in the upper leaf axils. Flowers are somewhat complex in their structure, with structures not found in the average flower (see Cut Flower Exports of Africa – Asclepias). The flowers are strongly and sweetly scented. The fruits (pods), known as follicles, are formed from the union of multiple flowers. They are green, covered in soft spiky projections and are finely pubescent. When the seeds are mature, the follicle splits exposing the seeds. Each seed is equipped with a coma, a soft group of hairs. As the newly exposed seeds dry, the hairs of the coma expand allowing the seed to catch a ride on the wind. When broken, the leaves, as well as stem and fruit, exude milky latex.

Continue reading →

From the Lady Slipper Archives: The Curious Case of the Disappearing Asters . . .

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 2004, Alan Weakley, looks at the taxonomic changes in the 1990s that moved American asters out of the Eurasian genus Aster into several American genera . This article ran in Vol. 19, No. 3. 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 Curious Case of the Disappearing Asters . . .

by Alan Weakley

Reprinted with permission of the author from the North Carolina Botanical Garden Newsletter 32(2). March-April 2004.

Would an aster by any other name look as showy?

One dark and stormy night in 1994 I was awakened from a deep sleep by a loud thump. Creeping carefully down the stairs, I discovered to my astonishment that a large bouquet of Aster on the dining table had disappeared! In its place was a cornucopia of composites, including Symphyotrichum, lonactis, Eurybia, Sericocarpus, Doellingeria, Ampelaster, and Oclemena! Once again, a plant taxonomist had struck in dark of night, taken a simple two- syllable genus with the same English common name, and replaced it with a handful of four- and five-syllable Latin tongue-twisters. Whatever can we do about such things?

The classification of living things is based on the principle that each taxonomic unit (for instance the Composite or Aster Family, the genus Aster, or a species) groups together things that are most closely related to one another, and that the group should not also contain things which are disparate, unrelated, or more closely related to another group.

The concept of the genus Aster has had a long history of controversy and confusion. Asa Gray, the most influential nineteenth-century North American botanist, struggled with Aster at all levels, from its circumscription (what to include in it), to the taxonomy of the component species. Late in his life, he wrote:

“I am half dead with Aster. I got on very fairly until I got to the thick of the genus, around what I call the Dumosi and Salicifolia. Here I work and work, but make no headway at all. I can’t tell what are species and [sic] how to define any of them …. I was never so boggled …If you hear of my breaking down utterly, and being sent to an asylum, you may lay it to Aster, which is a slow and fatal poison.”

Continue reading →

KNPS Field Trip to Crooked Creek SNP

Devin Rodgers, Botantist at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves

On Saturday, September 6, 2025, Devin Rodgers, KNPS member and Botanist for the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, led a hike of seven KNPS members at Crooked Creek State Nature Preserve, in Lewis County, KY. Though many of the asters (Symphyotrichum spp.) were not yet blooming, the hike’s focus on the sunflower family, Asteraceae, successfully highlighted flowering plants of many genera such as snakeroot (Ageratina), Mistflower (Conoclinium), thoroughworts (Eupatorium), Joe-pye-weed (Eutrochium), Blazingstars (Liatris), rosinweeds (Silphium), Goldenrod (Solidago), and Ironweed (Vernonia).

^{Expanses of prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) are found at Crooked Creek.}

The rare grassland type present at the preserve, the Bluegrass Cat Prairie, is a unique assemblage of plants unlike any other calcareous grassland in Kentucky, though there are a few similarities to scattered grasslands over dolomite in the outer Bluegrass extending south and west towards Louisville. These prairies contained some of the most interesting and spectacular blooms with a sea of prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum), stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida), and three different blazingstars (Liatris cylindracea, Liatris aspera, Liatris spicata), of which two were blooming. Additional uncommon species flowering in the prairies included Southern obedient-plant (Physostegia virginiana ssp. praemorsa), Gattinger’s agalinis (Agalinis gattingeri), and Earleaf Foxglove (Agalinis auriculata).

**^{Stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida)}**

^{Cylindrical blazing star (Liatris cylindracea)}

**^{Southern obedient-plant (Physostegia virginiana ssp. praemorsa)}**

**^{Earleaf foxglove (Agalinis auriculata)}**

Field Trip at Pine Creek Barrens — June 8, 2024

Date of trip: June 8, 2024
Start time: 10AM EDT
Location: Pine Creek Barrens Nature Preserve, Bullitt County, KY
Difficulty of hike: Moderate, approximately 2 miles and 2 hours.

Join KNPS member, Alan Abbott, at Pine Creek Barren for a hike. Pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) will likely be near full bloom in this beautiful grassland. We’ll probably see other prairie plants like orange milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and Senega snakeroot (Polygala senega).

We’ll start at 10 a.m. and hike about two miles. Prepare for some walking off trail by wearing appropriate footwear. You’ll want to practice tick prevention and bring water to prepare for heat and humidity.

This grassland near Shepherdsville is about 20-30 minutes from Louisville. Meet in the parking lot by 10 a.m. We’ll be done around noon.

Registration is Required

Please fill out the form below to register for this field trip. This trip will be limited to 15 participants.

Fourth Annual Kentucky Botanical Symposium Videos

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

On Friday, February 2, 2024, the Kentucky Native Plant Society and the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves held our fourth 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.

Continue reading →