KNPS is hosting a virtual botanical symposium on Wednesday, December 8th from 9AM-12PM 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. Please join us to learn about all things botanical in Kentucky and the surrounding region.
Topics that will be covered will include, but will not be limited to, KNPS updates, plant conservation alliance updates, conservation horticulture and native plant propagation; monitoring and managing native and rare plants and natural communities,; native plant research; plant biodiversity in Kentucky and the surrounding regions and exciting new botanical discoveries.
When: Wednesday, April 14th from 5:30PM-8:30PM EDT Location: Online Live Class via Zoom Instructor: Amy Tipton
As part of KNPS’s Wildflower Week 2021 activities we are incredibly excited to be able to offer this botanical drawing class.
Plants offer an unending supply of interesting shapes, textures, and details for artists to discover and translate to the page. Botanists and artists alike must develop skills of seeing plants deeply. Amy will help introduce participants to critical exploration of plant forms. An understanding of basic plant parts and floral arrangement will be discussed briefly to assure accurate representations of the selected subject specimen(s). Once the participants choose a plant/flower to draw, they will learn how to select an interesting composition, capture the subject’s proportions, create a line drawing, and complete their plant portrait with a range of values created through an exploration of different types of mark. A live Zoom format will offer opportunities for students to ask questions.
Amy Tipton is the Assistant Director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens. She holds a Masters of Science degree from Eastern Kentucky University, where she studied native plant ID and plant ecology under the guidance of Dr. Ron Jones. Amy holds bachelor degrees in Drawing and Art History, as well as an MFA in Printmaking. She enjoys botanical drawing and contributed over 50 pen and ink line drawings to Jones’ Plant Life of Kentucky. Amy has been a recipient of the Ophelia Anne Dowden Education Grant from the American Society of Botanical Artists.
Amy has taught for over 20 years. Some of her past teaching posts have included instructing University-level drawing, art appreciation, and ecology, and 7th grade science as a National Science Foundation Fellow. She often presents talks for those interested in native plants. Since her arrival at UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens in July of 2018, Amy has taught Wildflower ID, Native Tree ID, Native Shrub ID, Botanical Drawing I and II, Pressing Plants for Science and Art, and Botanical Watercolor for the Certificate of Native Plant Studies program. Amy has previously served on the board and strategic planning committee for the KNPS, and currently is active with the North Carolina Native Plant Society.
On Dec. 11, 2020, KNPS held our first virtual membership meeting and botanical symposium. For several years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium in the fall 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. Despite the pandemic year, we thought it was important to continue this event.
We had over 120 people join us online for several hours of informative presentations and interesting discussions. We know that many people wanted to join us but were unable to for various reasons. Here are all of the presentations.
Keynote Address: The Flora of the Southeastern United States – its Evolution, Exploration, and Conservation
Dr. Alan Weakley Alan is the Director, UNC Herbarium (NCU), North Carolina Botanical Gardens, as well as Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Biology and Ecology, Environment, and Energy Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More about Dr. Weakley
1 hour 8 minutes long
State of Kentucky Plant Conservation and KNPS Updates.
Jen Koslow, Tara Littlefield, Nick Koenig, & Jeff Nelson Jen is an Associate Professor in Biological Sciences at Eastern Kentucky University specializing in plant ecology. Tara is the Rare Plant Program Manager & Botanist in the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, as well as the KNPS President. Nick is a student at EKU and KNPS Ladyslipper Associate Editor. Jeff is a KNPS Board member and a life long amateur naturalist.
30 minutes long
Inventory, Monitoring and Management of Rare Plants and Communities in State Nature Preserves and Natural Areas
Devin Rodgers Devin is a Botanist with the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.
28 minutes long
Remnant Grasslands and Pollinator Habitat Along Kentucky’s Roadsides
Tony Romano Tony is a Botanist with the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.
26 minutes long
Native Plant Propagation Projects
Emily Ellingson & Heidi Braunreiter Emily is the Curator and Native Plants Collection Manager at The Arboretum: State Botanical Garden and a KNPS Board member. Heidi is a Botanist with the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky State Nature Preserves and Vice President of KNPS.
29 minutes long
Exciting Kentucky Botanical Discoveries
Mason Brock & Tara Littlefield Mason is the Herbarium Collections Manager at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville Tennessee. Tara is the Rare Plant Program Manager & Botanist in the Plant Conservation Section of the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves and President of KNPS.
Kentucky Botanical Symposium and Membership Meeting
KNPS is having a virtual botanical symposium on Thursday, December 10th from 10am-2pm EST. For several years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium in the fall 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. Despite the pandemic year, we thought it was important to continue this event, so please navigate this virtual world and join us to learn about all things botanical in Kentucky.
Topics that will be covered will include, but will not be limited to, KNPS updates, an overview of plant conservation in Kentucky, Kentucky’s roadside grassland and pollinator habitat program, conservation horticulture and native plant propagation, monitoring and managing rare plants and communities on State Nature Preserves, and exciting new Kentucky botanical discoveries.
Agenda
10:00-10:10 Welcome & Introduction
10:10-10:40 State of KY Plant Conservation and KNPS updates Jen Koslow, Tara Littlefield, Jeff Nelson, Susan Harkins and David Taylor
10:40-11:05 Inventory, Monitoring and Management of rare plants and communities in State Nature preserves and Natural areas Devin Rodgers (Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves)
11:05-11:10 Break
11:10-11:35 Roadside Native Plants Project Tony Romano (Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves) and panel
1:30-1:55 Exciting Kentucky Botanical Discoveries Mason Brock (Southeastern Grasslands Initiative/Austin Peay State University), Tara Littlefield (Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves)
1:55-2:00 Wrap-up
Keynote Speaker
We could not be more excited about our Keynote speaker Dr. Alan Weakley! Alan is a plant taxonomist and ecologist whose work in taxonomy and plant conservation has sparked a renaissance of botany in the southeast. Just after lunch, Alan will address Kentucky’s Botanical Community on interesting topics ranging from plant evolution and biogeography, to conservation, taxonomy and citizen science.
Alan Weakley, plant taxonomist, community ecologist and conservationist.
Alan Weakley is a plant taxonomist, community ecologist, and conservationist specializing in the Southeastern United States. He holds a B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. from Duke University. He has worked as botanist and ecologist for the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, and as regional and chief ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and NatureServe. He is currently Director of the UNC Herbarium, a department of the N.C. Botanical Garden, and teaches as adjunct faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill and at the Highlands Biological Station.
Alan is author of the Flora of the Southeastern United States, and co-author (with Chris Ludwig and Johnny Townsend) of the Flora of Virginia, which has received five awards, including the Thomas Jefferson Award for Conservation. He is also co-author (along with Laura Cotterman and Damon Waitt) of Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast.
He has also released an app, FloraQuest, co-developed with Michael Lee and Rudy Nash, covering the Southeastern United States flora. He has authored over 100 journal articles and book chapters, and is in high demand as a speaker on plant taxonomy, community classification and mapping, biogeography, and biodiversity conservation. He is active with the Flora of North America project and the United States National Vegetation Classification, serves as an advisor to the N.C. Natural Heritage Program and N.C. Plant Conservation Program, and is a co-founder of the Carolina Vegetation Survey. As a trustee and board member of public and private conservation granting agencies and foundations, he has helped oversee $400,000,000 of land conservation grants in the Southeastern United States.
Plant Family Identification Motifs: patterns for simplifying the complexity
Instructor: Dr. Richard Abbott*
When: Saturday, March 21, 2020 Time: 9am-4pm Eastern Time Where: Bernheim Arboretum & Forest, meet at the Garden Pavilion Cost: $25 /$10 for students Bring your own lunch, and wear hiking shoes
Using minimal basic vocabulary, approximately 30 plant families, and half a dozen artificial motifs, we will focus on plant identification patterns. Learning Kentucky plants within a global framework not only empowers confidence in knowing what you know, but enables identifying more than 130,000 plants to family globally and provides a solid foundation for incorporating other family patterns. Essentially, this workshop is an introduction to a way of thinking about how to organize botanical knowledge in a practical, applied way.
*About the Instructor
Dr. J. Richard Abbott, Assistant Professor of Biology, is the current Curator of the University of Arkansas Monticello Herbarium. At UAM, he teaches General Botany, Regional Flora, and Plants in Our World and conducts floristic, systematic, and taxonomic research, especially with the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology and German from Berea College in Kentucky and both M.S. degree and Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Florida in Gainesville. His primary passion is teaching plant identification, using the local flora to understand global patterns. To that end, he is currently working to establish a living teaching collection on the UAM campus, with the ultimate goal of cultivating as many families and genera as possible.
Workshops are opened to KNPS members for registration 2 weeks before they are opened to the general public. This session has been filled by KNPS members. If you are interested in this workshop you can sign up on the waiting list below. If an opening occurs the first person on the waiting list will be contacted If there is significant interest in the workshop we will try to schedule another session as soon as possible and the people on the waiting list will be the first contacted about the new session.
Sedge Identification and Diversity (Carex, Cyperaceae)
Many of the grass-like plants one may encounter in our natural areas in Kentucky are not actually grasses. Although similar, they are members of an entirely different family of plants; the sedge family (Cyperaceae)
Instructor: Rob Naczi*
When: May 21-22, 2019 (Tuesday/Wednesday) Time: 9am-5pm Eastern Time Where: Richmond area, Eastern Kentucky University and nearby natural areas, exact details TBA Cost: $75
THIS WORKSHOP HAS FINISHED
Many of the grass-like plants one may encounter in our natural areas in Kentucky are not actually grasses. Although similar, they are members of an entirely different family of plants. This workshop will focus on the largest genus within the sedge family (Cyperaceae), the genus Carex. With close to 150 species in this genus found in Kentucky, the diversity of sedges (Carex) is astounding and they can tell us a lot about the natural communities upon which they are found. Rob Naczi, curator of the New York Botanical garden and North America’s Carex expert, will teach us about sedge diversity and how to identify this notoriously difficult group.
*About the Instructor
Robert F. C. Naczi, PhD Arthur J. Cronquist Curator of North American Botany, The New York Botanical Garden
Robert Naczi is a plant systematist whose research focuses on the flora of North America, plant conservation, sedges (Cyperaceae), and Western Hemisphere Pitcher Plants (Sarraceniaceae). Naczi uses a multi-pronged approach in his research, utilizing field, herbarium, and laboratory methods. His fieldwork has given him first-hand knowledge of the plant life of much of North America. He and collaborators are writing a comprehensive account of the Northeast’s spontaneous plants, New Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. He is lead editor of Sedges: Uses, Diversity, and Systematics of the Cyperaceae (2008). Also, he co-authored Mistaken Identity? Invasive Plants and their Native Look-alikes: An identification guide for the Mid-Atlantic (2008). For 35 years, he has studied the taxonomy, phylogeny, and ecology of Carex. Carex is the largest genus of flowering plants in North America (500 species) and in most temperate regions of the world (2000 species total). Naczi earned the B.S. in Biology from St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, and the Ph.D. in Botany from University of Michigan.
