Hello all native plant and nature lovers!

As we enter 2026, KNPS has transitioned into a new term with new officers. As your new KNPS President, I would like to introduce myself to all of you!

My name is Kendall McDonald, and I am a lifelong Kentuckian from the rural central bluegrass. My love for nature started early, as I explored the tributaries of Elkhorn Creek and the Kentucky River with my family. As I grew older, my love for nature was mostly expressed through painting, photography and continuing to play in the creek. I attended Morehead State University, where I focused on botany and lichens in my coursework and research. As a research student I conducted a lichen inventory of the Eagle Lake watershed.

After graduating in 2017, I started as a Botany Tech at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. As of the beginning of 2026, I have been at OKNP for 8.5 years and now act as botanist, lichenologist and outreach coordinator. My work mainly focuses on the Kentucky Forest Biodiversity Assessment Program, the Kentucky Lichen Program, endangered species monitoring, digital design, and outreach. My greatest successes at this job have been creating the state’s first lichen list, assigning conservation ranks to all Kentucky lichen species, leading the Kentucky Forest Biodiversity Assessment Program for 7 years and creating many outreach materials, including the new Kentucky Heritage Lands Conservation Fund’s new nature license plates.

In my personal time I enjoy hiking, spending time with friends and family, creating art, watching good cinema, playing cozy video games, thrifting, and watching cute animal videos. I have a 9 year old tortoise shell cat named Luna Belle (pictured on the right) who I adore. If you attend any KNPS virtual meetings, you will meet her, as she believes herself the star of every video call I’ve ever had.

I have been attending KNPS events since 2018, and became officially involved in 2019. I have served as Vice President for 2 years. My experience at KNPS has been rewarding, challenging and exciting and I cannot wait to serve the society in a different capacity. I am looking forward to meeting and working with each of you during my term.

The best way to get to know me is to spend time with me outdoors. Here are my favorite botanical and natural world memories from 2025. Here’s to 2026 and the love of native plants!

Limestone Slope Glades

Cumberland Acid Seeps

This summer, I had the honor of working in the Cumberland Acid Seeps to plant White Fringeless Orchid (Platanthera integrilabia, WFO) and document the biodiversity of lichens on the trees. The WFO project in Kentucky is coordinated by OKNP Biological Assessment & Plant Conservation branch manager and University of Kentucky PhD student Tara Littlefield. Tara showed me my first WFO in 2017 (which was my first federally listed species) and seeing her hard work and multi-agency collaboration result in a large planting of this federally threatened orchid 8 years later was incredibly gratifying. Holding the delicate roots of the seedlings and placing them into the watery muck of the seep felt like tucking a child into a warm and cozy bed. As the natural world changes unnaturally fast all around us, planting projects like this are essential to rare plant conservation. Addition to the vascular flora, these seeps are lichen biodiversity hotspots. Rare lichens observed this year included rimmed shingles lichen (Fuscopannaria leucosticta), frazzled dot lichen (Gomphillus americanus), lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria), smooth lungwort (Ricasolia quercizans), tree flute (Menegazzia subsimilis), fingered moon lichen (Sticta beauvoisii), elf-ear lichen (Normandina pulchella), and green specklebelly lichen (Crocodia aurata).

Kentucky Lady Slipper

In the early summer, I got to survey for Kentucky Lady Slipper (Cypripedium kentuckiense) with Dr. Allen Risk of Morehead State University. He was one of the botanists on the original projects that discovered these populations in the early 1990s. It was very cool to come back with him over 30 years later and hear his firsthand accounts on the ways the landscape has changed. I always learn new and interesting things from Allen on ecology, geology, lichens, bryophytes and vascular plants. The day was filled with many discussions of lichen/bryophyte communities and epiphytes of Kentucky. The Kentucky Lady Slipper was ultimately the star of the day, blessing us with over 50 of its beautiful cream and maroon flowers and hundreds of vegetative leaves.

A Late Summer Storm in the Mature Forests of the Daniel Boone National Forest

After a dry spell, I visited some mature Appalachian Mesophytic Forests after (and during) much needed rain. It was incredibly peaceful to listen to the sound of the water dripping onto the rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) leaves and the babble of the cold creek as I watched a pair of hooded warblers (Setophaga citrina) dance around in rhododendron branches above me. The rain must have been a huge relief to the amphibians of the forest because I saw 17 Eastern newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) in the red eft stage as I hiked. As is typical in the summer, clear skies suddenly turned dark as a surprise summer storm made its way through the Rockcastle River corridor. I sheltered in sandstone overhangs during the summer rain and got to experience the misty forest as the sun returned.

Pine Mountain Scenic Trail: Summer and Autumn

I was fortunate enough to visit the Pine Mountain area for 3 weeks this year. A week of forest surveys had me stretching the mountain, from Pike county to the southern edge of Harlan county. I drove along the Little Shepards Trail in between sites, documenting forests, lichens and pollinators. The large chestnut oaks (Quercus montana) of Pine Mountain are home to several rare lichens, as the deep furrows in the bark provide a micro habitat of protection and moisture for sensitive lichens. The summer visit brought observations of eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium fistulosum), Appalachian bellflower (Campanula divaricata), elf-ear lichen (Normandina pulchella), and the common raven (Corvus corax).

I returned to the Pine Mountain Scenic Trail in the fall, hiking with friends under the vivid colors of the changing leaves and the gray rainy mountain skies. Though the wet, windy, cold and foggy conditions of the ridge top can be an uncomfortable hike (without the proper gear), the constant moisture and high air quality make the ridge of Pine Mountain a hotspot for lichens. The lichen flora was so incredible that my hiking companion and I documented our record low hiking speed of <0.5 miles per hour. These adventures contained sightings of lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria), pelt lichens (Peltigera sp.), smooth lungwort (Ricasolia quercizans), trashy tube lichen (Hypogymnia tuberosa), fingered moon lichen (Sticta beauvoisii), upside seastorm lichen (Cetrelia olivetorum). My favorite observations were old man’s beard Lichens (Usnea sp.) as long as a botanist’s arm and two hawks locking talons in an intense spiraling and screaming dive.

Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

As Fall winds down and the Winter Solstice fast approaches, this time of year is one of reflection and consideration of the year that is passing and the year to come. In 2026, the Kentucky Native Plant Society will be 40 years old. In 1986, several prominent botanists in the state came together to found a society dedicated to serving as a medium of fellowship and information exchange among botanists, both amateur and professional, to promote conservation of the native plants and natural plant communities of Kentucky, to promote public education in botanical science, and to encourage botanical research in Kentucky.

In the decades since it was founded, KNPS has grown to be a statewide organization of over 600 active members. It has introduced and educated thousands of Kentuckians to the importance and beauty of the state’s native plants and plant communities. Every year, more and more of our neighbors are planting native species for their beauty and, even more importantly, for their value to native butterflies, moths, bees, birds, and other wildlife. It seems that every week one hears or sees stories in the media about the native plant movement. We believe that the efforts of the Kentucky Native Plant Society, and native plant societies in other states, over the past 40 years have played no small part in this growth of interest in native plants.

by Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

Get ready and be observant on these cold mornings. We are now entering the time of year when we will begin seeing one of Nature’s loveliest and most evanescent phenomenons in our region; Frost Flowers.

What are Frost Flowers?

Frost flowers are thin ribbons of ice that form on the stems of a few species of native plants. Water from the roots is drawn up the stems (either as part of the plant’s natural transportation system or through capillary action) and expands as it freezes, breaking the stem walls and creating a flow of ice. As the ice forms, more water freezes, forcing out ribbons of thin ice . Other names for these structures are “ice flowers”, “ice ribbons”, “ice fringes”, “ice filaments”, and “rabbit ice”.

Conditions Needed for Frost Flowers to Form

Frost flowers form only when certain very specific conditions all come together:

• Air temperatures must be below freezing (usually below 30°).
• There should be little to no wind.
• Ground temperatures must still be above freezing.
• There must be some degree of soil moisture.
• They only form on particular species of plants.

If conditions are right, the same plants can produce multiple frost flowers in a season, starting as early as November and producing frost flowers as late as early February. Usually the first frost flowers of the year will extend quite a ways up the stem, without extending out very far, as the entire stem splits. By the end of the season, when the stems are completely shredded, the frost flowers come out from the very base of the plant.

What Plants Produce Frost Flowers?

Worldwide, there are roughly 30 species of plants that produce frost flowers. In our region there are three native species that typically produce frost flowers. The two most common are white crownbeard, a.k.a. frostweed (Verbesina virginica) and common dittany (Cunila origanoides). A third species, that is mainly in wet areas, is marsh fleabane (Pluchea camphorata). I have heard that frost flowers sometimes appear on species of sage (Salvia) but I have never seen that and don’t know for sure what species of sage may produce frost flowers.

Grow Your Own Frost Flowers

Although it is always exciting to find frost flowers in the “wild” another option for folks is to plant one of the natives that produce this phenomena in the yard. My frostweed patch came from a single plant that volunteered in the front yard about 6 years ago. It has reseeded itself and now many others have sprouted from the seeds of the original. On cold mornings I can now just look out the front window and see the frost flowers.