Date of trip: 06/11/2022 Time: 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM (approx.) Central Time Location: Ballard County Difficulty of hike: Easy – We will caravan/carpool on the gravel roads in the wildlife management area, stopping to view a variety of native plants and habitats. At a couple of the stops, we will walk distances of under a 1/2 mile.
Swamp Candles (Lysimachia terrestris)
Join KNPS President, Jeff Nelson and Ballard WMA employee, Gerald Burnett, as as we explore the native plant ecosystems in the wetlands and river bottoms of the Ballard WMA in Ballard Co.
Ballard Wildlife Management Area is 8,000 acres located in the Ohio River bottomlands ecoregion in far western Kentucky. The WMA is mostly wetland with 39% of the acreage in wetland, 28% forest, 27% open land, and 6% open water. Much of the wetland is comprised of rare, cypress-tupelo swamps and sloughs which many Kentuckians have not had the opportunity to experience. The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves lists cypress-tupelo swamp as a state endangered ecosystem.
We will caravan (carpooling as much as possible) around the WMA, stopping to examine the botany of Ballard’s diverse ecosystems. We should see several uncommon, wetland plant species. In particular we should see the rare swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris), a more northerly species that in Kentucky is only found in two far western counties. Although we will not be hiking any distance, we will be taking walks of less than 1/2 mile at a couple of stops, all on the road or trails. We will walk into areas off the road to get a better view many of the plants. There is likely to be some muddy spots where we will be walking, so be prepared.
Registration is Required
Please fill out the form below to register for this field trip. This trip will be limited to 20 people.
KNPS Field Trip to the Land Between the Lakes on July 6, 2019. Devin Rogers is the hike Leader.
Our 2022 schedule of KNPS Field Trips is coming together! Already scheduled, we will have field trips in June to Ballard WMA and in July we will visit a glade community across the Ohio River, in Indiana. Other field trips across the Commonwealth are in the planning stages and will be announced here in the Lady Slipper when they are scheduled.
Several years ago, KNPS adopted the policy of requiring preregistration for field trips and KNPS members are given the first opportunity to register for these trips. Once KNPS members have had a chance to register, signup forms will be available on the web site approximately 30 days before the field trip.
Swamp candles (Lysimacha terrestris)
Our first field trip this year will be on June 11 to the Ballard Wildlife Management Area, in Ballard Co. Ballard Wildlife Management Area is 8,000 acres located in the Ohio River bottomlands ecoregion in far western Kentucky. Much of the wetlands are comprised of rare, cypress-tupelo swamps and sloughs which many Kentuckians have never had the opportunity to experience. The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves lists cypress-tupelo swamp as a state endangered ecosystem. We should see several uncommon, wetland plant species. In particular we hope to see the rare swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris) in bloom, a more northerly species, that in Kentucky is only found in two far western counties.
On July 9, KNPS member Alan Abbott will lead a field trip to Buena Vista Glade in Taylor, Indiana, about 50 minutes west from downtown Louisville. Plants that will likely be in flower include green milkweed (Asclepias verdiflora), whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata), and glade St. John’s-wort (Hypernicum dolabriforme). With a little luck we might also see American columbo (Melanthium woodii) in bloom. Read more about glades in Alan’s article, What is A Glade? Registration for this field trip will open up in early June. Watch the Lady Slipper for the announcement (or if you are a KNPS member you will receive an email when registration is open).
If you have any questions about these trips or if there is a natural area in KY that you think would make for a good field trip, send us an email at KYPlants@knps.org. We are also always looking for folks to lead field trips. If there is a natural area with some nice native plant species that you would like to share with other KNPS members, send us an email. We will take care of organizing and publicizing the trip, you just have to share you love of native plants with the participants.
Kentucky Gladecress (Leavenworthia exigua var. laciniata)
One of the defining characteristics of the Bluegrass and Pennyroyal Plateau regions is the presence of small, rocky glades. Broadly speaking, a glade is any clearing in a forest. But in our part of the country, it tends to refer to areas with a shallow soil and a limestone bedrock, usually on south- or west-facing slopes. Without trees shading everything out, a rich layer of grasses and forbs emerges. As islands of grassland within larger forested areas, they tend to have high rates of endemism, or plants found only within one, relatively small area. Some plants can be found only in a few counties (like Kentucky gladecress, Leavenworthia exigua var. laciniata) or a narrow region, like the Interior Low Plateau, which runs from northern Alabama, through central Tennessee and Kentucky and into south-central Indiana.
Their isolation means that glades separated by only a few miles can have surprisingly different plant communities. In Harrison County, Indiana, which has similar shallow soils and limestone bedrock as Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region, one glade may have hundreds of Echinacea and a similar one walking distance away won’t have any.
There are a number of opportunities to see limestone glades in the greater Louisville area this year. As part of the Botany Blitz, KNPS members met at Pine Creek Barrens in Shepardsville to see Kentucky gladecress, as well as the more common spring ephemerals in the woods that surrounded the grasslands.
In Indiana, the Nature Conservancy had a Glade Appreciation Day on May 7th in Harrison County. Information for many of the glades of the area can be found here: Harrison County Glades | The Nature Conservancy
KNPS will be providing a tour of some Harrison County glades in July, when the wildflower show should be near its peak. More information to follow. The glades are about 45 minutes northwest of Louisville.
We’ll also be offering another tour of Pine Creek Barrens in September to see the Asters and Blazing Stars.
Check out this new publication about Trilliums of North America! The report, “The Conservation Status of Trillium in North America,” presents the analysis of 53 plant taxa using two different methodologies. Authors found that habitat loss, overpopulation of white-tailed deer, and habitat disturbance caused by feral pigs are the primary threats to North American Trillium. Every trillium that occurs in North America is included in this publication.
Trillium reaches its peak diversity in the southern Appalachians. BONAP Nodding Trillium (Trillium flexipes). @Littlefield.Great White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum). @Littlefield.Yellow Trillium (Trillium luteum). @Littlefield.Stinking Benjamin (Trillium erectum). @Littlefield.Authors of the new Trillium publication. IUCN_Natureserve North American Trillium assessment team 2019-2021. KNPS board member Tara Littlefield is one of the coauthors. From L to R: Robert Raguso, Leah Oliver, Anna Walker, Clayton Meridith, Amy Highland, Tara Littlefield, Wes Knapp, Anne Frances, LL Gaddy, Danna Leaman, Aaron Floden, Kjirsten Wayman, Ed Schilling and Alfred Schotz.
Other important links highlighting this publication can be found below:
Past president, Tara Littlefield, leading the “Search for Sweet Pinesap” near Gray’s Arch in the Red River Gorge during Wildflower Weekend 2022. Spoiler alert, the search for this rare, KY native was successful!
The Kentucky Native Plant Society has had a busy and exciting few weeks recently. From April 8th through the 10th, over 100 native plant enthusiasts came together to enjoy KNPS’ first, in-person, Wildflower Weekend since 2019. Although temperatures were cool and skies were damp at Natural Bridge SRP, spirits were high as folks dressed for the weather and enjoyed 14 different native plant walks led by an incredible group of expert botanists. Saturday night, a large group of KNPS members and friends met in the Woodland Center for presentations by Ted Brancheau, Nick Koenig, and the keynote speaker, Mike Homoya. We are working on articles for May’s Lady Slipper all about Wildflower Weekend 2022, but for now, you can read about the events on the Wildflower Weekend page.
Leading up to Wildflower Weekend 2022, from April 2 through April 8, KNPS organized a week-long BotanyBlitz project on iNaturalist. This was our second year for this event and the KNPS Wildflower Week 2022 Botany Blitz exceeded all expectations, with over 4,600 observations of 539 different plant species across Kentucky. Look for Vanessa Voelker’s article about the 2022 BotanyBlitz in next month’s Lady Slipper.
To educate the public about iNaturalist and to promote the KNPS Wildflower Week’s BotanyBlitz iNaturalist Project, on Saturday, April 2, eleven tutorial hikes, led by experienced iNaturalist users, were held in parks and natural areas across the state. These hikes were geared towards beginning iNaturalist users and taught them how to make observations and navigate the app. Look for Rachel Cook’s article about the tutorial hikes in next month’s Lady Slipper. Until the article comes out in May, you can see the list of these hikes in this article from last month, Kick-off BotanyBlitz 2022 with an iNaturalist Tutorial Hike!
Our successful Wildflower Weekend 2022 and the other Wildflower Week activities would not have been possible without the hard work of so many folks. KNPS Vice President Heidi Brauneiter and her WW2022 committee put in many hours making Wildflower Weekend happen so well. Vanessa Voelker and Rachel Cook organized BotanyBlitz and the iNaturalist Tutorial hikes and were instrumental in getting so many folks participating this year. Thanks go to those 200 folks on iNaturalist that helped identify the many observations made during BotanyBlitz. We also have to thank the amazing botanists and naturalists who led the walks and hikes and answered our questions, as well as KNPS board members and volunteers who staffed the registration tables. Finally to our partners at Natural Bridge SRP, thank you for hosting the KNPS Wildflower Weekend for the 30th time. All of these folks came together to produce a fun and educational experience with Kentucky’s most beautiful native plants. Thank you.
Prior to the presentations on Saturday night, there was a short KNPS membership meeting where the results of the online election for our KNPS officers were announced. Officers for 2022-2024 are; President, Jeff Nelson, Vice-President, Heidi Braunreiter, Secretary, Kelly Watson, Treasurer, Steele McFadden, and Directors Wes Cunningham, Jen Koslow, Jess Slade, and David Taylor. I am honored and excited to be elected president of the Kentucky Native Plant Society and look forward to working closely with the other board members and the KNPS membership to continue to advance the KNPS mission; “to promote education, preservation, and protection of native plants and natural communities.“
Liz Neihoff & Jeff Nelson at Metropolis Lake SNP, McCracken Co.
A little bit about me. I was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in Sunnyvale, California. I received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara. My wife Liz, our son Aaron, and I moved from California to McCracken Co., Kentucky (Liz’s home), in 1987. After building a house on our 10 acres, we have spent the last 30+ years restoring the property from farmland to a native woodland. We have been members of the Kentucky Native Plant Society since the early 1990s and I have been on the Board of KNPS since 2017. Since 2019, Liz and I have shared responsibilities as Nature Preserve Monitors at Metropolis Lake SNP in McCracken Co. As lifelong amateur naturalists, we love exploring Kentucky and learning about the rich diversity of the Commonwealth’s many ecosystems.
I cannot end this message without a big, personal thank you to Tara Littlefield. Tara recruited me to serve on the Board in 2017. Her love of, and commitment to, the native plants and ecosystems of Kentucky has served as an inspiration to me and everyone who knows her. Tara’s service to the Kentucky Native Plant Society is long-standing, serving in many roles, most recently as President for the past five years. Although leaving the office of President, Tara remains on the Board as the Immediate Past President and as the Chair of the Plant Conservation Committee so we will continue to have the benefit of her skills and botanical knowledge. Thank you, Tara.
Beginning my two-year term as President of KNPS, I am confident that the Society will grow and continue to be a leader in promoting education about, appreciation for, and conservation of our native flora. If you have any thoughts about what KNPS can and should be doing going forward, or if you just have a question about our native plants, email me at jeff.53chevy@gmail.com .
It’s spring now, but neither the oak (Quercus sp.) nor the white ash tree (Fraxinus americana) in our backyard are sprouting new growth; nor will they. Those trees are dead and are now called snags. Most people cut down dead trees, feeling that they have outlived their usefulness. I take issue with that! Let me explain.
When we first bought our house in the rural northern Franklin County, KY area, the oak was already a snag. Being avid birders, we noticed that its dead branches and trunk frequently hosted several interesting birds well within view of our picture window. We determined that the oak snag was far enough away from our house that it should not pose a hazard, so we elected not to cut it down. Instead, after many years of coaxing, we succeeded in training a trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans) to climb up its trunk nearly to its crown, about 40 feet.
Trumpet creeper
Photo credit: Leslie Saunders via Unsplash.
Trumpet creeper, also known as Trumpet vine, is native to Kentucky. It sports lovely orange, red-orange to red tubular flowers from May through August. Ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) (Kentucky’s most common hummingbird species) visit the tubular flowers to feast on its nectar, and in the process, they cross-pollinate its flowers. A pretty good deal for a plant whose seeds, sap and leaves are toxic. This plant is also known as the “cow itch vine,” because contact with its leaves can cause contact dermatitis, apparently not to hummingbirds, though.
Many insects feed on this plant, including planthoppers, mealy bugs, scale and white flies, all in the order, Hemiptera, and produce “honeydew,” their sweet excrement on which ants feed. Insectivorous birds, and insect predator species are attracted to this microecosystem.
Another phenomenon we observed with Trumpet creeper was the delightful spectacle of Baltimore orioles (Icterus galbula) and summer tanagers (Piranga rubra) slicing open the flower tubes to consume the nectar. We enjoyed the kaleidoscope of orange, red and yellow of the birds and flowers all glowing in the sunshine.
We’ve experienced the excitement of seeing numerous birds alight on the branches of the oak snag, including great-horned owl (Bubo virginianus), bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), and turkey vulture (Cathartes aura). More commonly, though, American goldfinch (Spinus tristis), tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor), Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis), Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) and every Kentucky resident or migratory woodpecker species common to Kentucky use its branches in anticipation of their turn at the feeders below.
Although we don’t know what caused the oak tree’s death and rebirth as a snag, we watched in sadness as our very large and beautiful ash tree fell victim to the non-native emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis). Much of its once gray, rough diamond-shaped bark peeled off in huge chunks in the aftermath of the beetle’s larvae having fed on the tree’s phloem, killing the tree in the process. Phloem are the structures that transport sugars and protein from the leaves where they are produced, to the rest of the tree. It’s mostly bare, skeleton-like trunk bears numerous s-shaped scars from tunnels produced by the beetle larvae.
Prior to this infestation, the ash featured lavishly green compound leaves during the growing season, which turned a lovely reddish-purple in the fall. The fruit of the female white ash are seeds housed in a flat oar-shaped case, called a samara. Samarae are often referred to as “helicopter keys,” because when they fall from the tree, they swirl like a helicopter. Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus), Northern cardinal, squirrel (family Sciuridae) and mice (Mus spp,) feed on the seeds of the ash tree.
Although the EAB infestations have killed scores of Kentucky’s ash trees (it has been estimated that up to 10% of our forests were made up of ash tree species), remarkably, there is at least one silver-lining, i.e., they have left snags in their wake, offering animal accommodations, and harboring insects behind the still-clinging bark and crevices for insectivores. The populations of woodpecker species, white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), Carolina chickadee and tufted titmouse, and all cavity-nesting birds, have soared in our area.
“Speaking” of nest cavities, our ash snag possesses one that appears to be highly coveted. Over the span of several weeks one year, we observed a red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), and several red-bellied woodpeckers inspecting it. One red-bellied woodpecker (M. carolinus) we watched began renovating the cavity by throwing nesting material into it. He stopped renovation periodically to drum on the trunk near the hole, most likely to attract a female. Much to our surprise, a seemingly indignant flying squirrel (Glaucomys Volans) suddenly exited the hole, discarding the added nesting material and chasing the woodpecker around the trunk until she scared him off.
Although it may not be wise to leave every snag on your property, especially in an urban or suburban setting, think twice before having one removed. Even in death, trees can be an asset, as well as the source of much entertainment.
The Lady Slipper newsletter 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. This one, about a rare shrub native to Kentucky, sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina), first appeared in the spring of 2011, Vol. 26, No. 1. If you would like to see other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 34, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2019 (after which we moved to this blog format) can be found.
Sweet fern—A rare Kentucky shrub with an interesting history
By Tara Littlefield, Botanist, Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission
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.
Comptonia peregrina – KSNPC file photo
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.
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 ex-change).
Female flowers (short round catkins with reddish bracts) and male flowers (elongated catkins clustered at the branch tips) www.nativehaunts.comphenology.html
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, sweetfern 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 specie 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 as-plenifolia Linnaeus) with Description of new species. Transactions of the American Entomological Society (1890-). Vol. 74, No. 3-4, 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. Re-view of Paleobotany and Palynology. Vol. 163, p. 52-63.
Medley, Max and Eugene Wofford. 1980. Thuja occidentalis L. and other noteworthy collections from the BigSouth Fork of the Cumberland River in McCreary County, Kentucky. Castanea. Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 213-215.
