President’s Message

American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)

A new calendar year has begun and as each day becomes a bit longer it is a good time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. 2022 was my first year as President of our Society and was also our first chance to come together for in-person events after 2 years of the COVID pandemic.

KNPS activities for the year began with Wildflower Week 2022, a week of native plant activities, culminating in our first, in-person, Wildflower Weekend since 2019. We began the week with around a dozen wildflower walks in locations across the Commonwealth, from McCracken Co. in the west to Letcher Co. in the east. These walks were billed as “iNaturalist Tutorial Hikes” and had two goals. To help people utilize the iNaturalist app for plant identification and to get folks participating in our second, week-long BotanyBlitz. A BotanyBlitz is an event where participants try to document as many plant species as possible within a certain geographical location during a set period of time. The KNPS Wildflower Week 2022 Botany Blitz began on April 2, 2022 and ran through April 9, 2022. During that week, participants made over 4,500 observations of 537 different species of Kentucky plants, including 6 species that are listed as rare in KY.

Planning is now well on its way for our third annual BotanyBlitz on iNaturalist from April 8th-15th, 2023. As in prior years, BotanyBlitz allows us to broaden our spring wildflower scope to the entire state of Kentucky and allows us to highlight natural areas across the commonwealth! If you work/volunteer at a natural area in Kentucky and would like to partner with us to host a wildflower hike at your site to kick off the BotanyBlitz week, please send an email to: WildflowerWeekend2023@knps.org

Sweet pinesap (Monotropsis odorata), Red River Gorge

From April 8th, 2022 through April 10th, 2022, over 100 native plant enthusiasts came together to enjoy KNPS’ first, in-person, Wildflower Weekend since 2019, Wildflower Weekend 2022. 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.

Planning has already begun on Wildflower Weekend 2023 and the dates have been set for April 14th – 16th, 2023! For over 30 years, Kentucky Native Plant Society has partnered with Natural Bridge State Resort Park to offer guided hikes to explore Kentucky’s rich natural history and resources in the Red River Gorge. This year, Kentucky State Parks has offered to host our annual Wildflower Weekend at another of Kentucky’s beautiful state parks: Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. We are excited to hike new trails, see new wildflowers, and increase access to this event for members in a different part of the state. Save the dates and watch your email in early March for details on the hikes and registration procedures.

Swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris), Ballard WMA

Field trips to quality natural areas in Kentucky have always been an important part of the educational mission of KNPS. Field trips in 2022 explored native plant communities that most of us have little experience with, from the Ohio River bottomland, cypress-tupelo swamps to the limestone barrens of central Kentucky. We hope to explore more of Kentucky’s rich diversity of native plant life in 2023. If there is an area in Kentucky that you think would be a good candidate site for a field trip, or if you would like to help by leading or co-leading a field trip this year, just send us an email at FieldTrips@knps.org.

We were thrilled to be able to have workshops again. In May of 2022, we were presented a workshop, Plant Family Identification Motifs: patterns for simplifying the complexity, led by Dr. J. Richard Abbott, Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Arkansas. This workshop filled up fast when offered and was very well received, with one participant saying, “Just wanted to drop a line that this class was fantastic!” We hope to offer more workshops going forward.

KNPS Members & Friends at Blue Licks Battlefield SRP for the KNPS Fall Meeting, Oct. 15, 2022

We closed out the year’s activities with our 2022 Fall Meeting at Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park on Saturday, October 15th. On a beautiful fall day dozens of KNPS members and friends came together at Blue Licks Battlefield for our first in-person Fall Meeting since 2019. Blue Licks is one of the few locations in the world (three counties in KY and one county in IN) where the globally rare goldenrod, Short’s goldenrod (Solidago shortii) can be found. The day began with presentations about Short’s goldenrod by Dr. Carol Baskin and Jess Slade. In the afternoon the group, led by KNPS Vice-President Heidi Braunreiter and Immediate Past President Tara Littlefield, explored a limestone glade community in the park. The group saw Short’s goldenrod in bloom, along with two other species of native goldenrod, gray goldenrod (S. nemoralis) and tall goldenrod (S. altissima). Other native species of note that were in bloom included Great Plains lady’s tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum), white gentian (Gentiana alba), and agueweed (Gentianella quinquefolia). It was wonderful to come together and share our love of Kentucky’s native plants. For one person’s experience, be sure to read Kristin Bailey Wilson’s post about the day, KNPS 2022 Fall Meeting Provides Information and Community.

2023 is already shaping up to be a banner year for the Kentucky Native Plant Society. We are kicking off the year with the annual Kentucky Botanical Symposium, on Thursday, January 26th from 9:00AM-11:30AM EST. This is one event that we continue to present virtually. Be sure to follow the link and register for this great event. April 8-16 will bring Wildflower Week 2023, with plant ID hikes, BotanyBlitz 2023, and Wildflower Weekend. We plan to offer several field trips throughout the year and we are hoping to set up at least one workshop.

The mission of the Kentucky Native Plant Society is to promote education about, appreciation for, and conservation of our native flora. Everything that KNPS does in support of this mission is planned, organized, and implemented by volunteers from our membership. Nothing happens without members’ willingness to help out. Regardless of whether you are a long time advocate for Kentucky’s native plants or if you are just getting started in your journey of exploration with native flora, we would love for you to become more involved with the Society. If you can help KNPS out this year, please take a minute to submit the form below.

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Native Plant Suppliers & Service Providers Listing

Many KNPS members and friends are passionate native plant gardeners and are always on the look out for sources of native plants and seeds. Beginning native plant gardeners also often are looking for help with landscape design and similar services. For several years the KNPS website has featured a listing of Native Plant Suppliers & Service Providers in our region who grow and sell native plants and who work with native plants in other ways. Service providers include landscape designers and installers, invasive species removal specialists, habitat restoration specialists, and other businesses that have a focus on native plants.

If you are a native plant related business or know of such as business, and would like to have that business featured, we invite you to fill out this form on our website: https://www.knps.org/native-plant-supplier-form/.

If you have any questions, please contact KYPlants@knps.org.

Kentucky Botanical Symposium (Virtual)

Thursday, January 26, 2023, 9:00AM-11:30AM EST, Virtual & Free

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

The Kentucky Native Plant Society (KNPS) and Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves (OKNP) is co-hosting the annual Kentucky Botanical Symposium on Thursday, January 26th from 9:00AM-11:30AM EST. For several years, KNPS has organized a botanical symposium with a goal of bringing together professionals, community scientists, academics, researchers, gardeners, and students to learn about what is going on in the world of Kentucky botany and beyond. This year, speakers and facilitators include Tara Littlefield (OKNP/KYPCA) discussing the current state of Kentucky plant conservation, Jeff Nelson providing KNPS updates, Dr. Alan Weakley (NCBG) providing an update on the SE flora project, Justin Thomas (NatureCITE) providing an overview of management effects on grasslands in Missouri, Nour Salam (OKNP) discussing modernizing data collection for field botanists and land managers, and Dr. Bridgette Williams discussing conservation genetics and the recent Kentucky Glade Cress (Leavenworthia exigua var. leavenworthia) project. 

We are accepting updates from our plant partners to be featured in the botanical stakeholders highlights portion of the meeting. You can submit a PowerPoint slide including information about news or events to be featured during the symposium break. If you want to update Kentucky’s botanical community about recent native plant related news, projects, or upcoming events, please contact us at BotanicalSymposium@knps.org to be added to the stakeholders update section.

Starting in 2021, the Kentucky Native Plant Society began formally recognizing individuals with the KNPS Conservation Award. Individuals are recognized for their outstanding contributions in advancing KNPS’s mission: to promote education about, appreciation for, and conservation of Kentucky’s native plants and native plant communities. If you know of someone deserving of this award, please send us an email to BotanicalSymposium@knps.org with the individual’s name (and contact info) and a description of what this person has done to qualify for this recognition.

Agenda

Welcome & General Symposium Rules Overview, Heidi Braunreiter, KNPS Vice-President

Kentucky Native Plant Society Updates, Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

State of Kentucky Plant Conservation, Tara Littlefield, OKNP State Botanist, Plant Conservation & Biological Assessment Branch Manager & KPCA Coordinator

Update on the Southeastern Flora Project, Dr. Alan Weakley, North Carolina Botanical Garden & Southeast Botanist

Modernizing Data Collection for Field Botany and Management, Nour Salam, OKNP Database Analyst

Break with stakeholder and upcoming events slideshow updates

Species Level Vegetation Monitoring – Letting the Trees, Forbs, Grasses, and Communities Speak for Themselves, Justin Thomas, NatureCITE Co-director

Advancing Plant Conservation with Genetic and Epigenetic Tools: A case study of the federally threatened “Kentucky glade cress,” Leavenworthia exigua var. laciniata, Dr. Bridgette Williams & Dr. Christie Edwards, Missouri Botanical Garden

Questions and Discussions Section, Moderator: Ted Brancheau, KNPS Board Member

Kentucky Botanical Symposium Speakers:

Kentucky Native Plant Society Updates, Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

Jeff Nelson has a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Jeff worked as the IT Director of the Paducah Independent School District for 15 years, retiring in 2008. A native of California, Jeff, his wife Liz, and his son Aaron, moved to McCracken Co., Kentucky, in 1987. After building their house on their 10 acres, the family has spent the last 30 years restoring the property from farmland to a native woodland. As a lifelong amateur naturalist, Jeff loves exploring Kentucky and learning about the rich diversity of the Commonwealth’s many ecosystems. He has been a member of the KNPS since the early 1990s and on the Board since 2017, and is the current KNPS president (2022-2024)

Jeff Nelson

State of Kentucky Plant Conservation, Tara Littlefield, OKNP State Botanist, Plant Conservation & Biological Assessment Branch Manager & KPCA Coordinator

Tara Littlefield is the state botanist and manager of the Plant Conservation and Biological Assessment Branch at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.  She has over 17 years’ experience as a heritage biologist (botany and ecology) and natural area conservation leadership.    She also coordinates the states Plant Conservation Alliance, a public private partnership working on rare plant and community conservation, and is the past president of the KNPS (2016-2022).  Tara has a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Louisville, M.S. in Forestry/Plant Ecology from the University of Kentucky and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky in Forest/Natural Resource Conservation.  Much of her work involves rare species surveys, general floristic inventories, natural areas inventory, biological research, acquisition/protection of natural areas, rare plant/community restoration and recovery, and biological/conservation program development and management.

Tara Littlefield

Update on the Southeastern Flora Project, Dr. Alan Weakley, Plant Taxonomist, Community Ecologist, UNC herbarium director and professor

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 the author and coordinator of The Flora of the Southeastern United States is an open access, downloadable flora with over 10,000 species. See the article about this important research here: Flora of the Southeastern United States – 2020 Edition. He has also released an app, FloraQuest, co-developed with Michael Lee and Rudy Nash, covering the Southeastern United States flora. Alan focuses on systematics and biogeography of the Southeastern United States, community classification developing the U.S. National Vegetation Classification, and land management, conservation planning, and environmental policy involving the conservation of Southeastern United States ecosystems and species.

Dr. Alan Weakley

Modernizing Data Collection for Field Botany and Management, Nour Salam, OKNP Database Analyst

Nour Salam is a database analyst at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. She is passionate about using her SQL and GIS skills to guide data-driven conservation decisions. Nour earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the American University of Beirut and a master’s degree in marine biodiversity and conservation from the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, and got the opportunity to live in five different countries as part of that path. For the last 3 years, she has been focusing on managing Kentucky’s natural heritage database and making sure that staff botanists, zoologists, and land managers have the GIS tools they need to operate efficiently in the field. During her off time, she’s currently pursuing her mission to birdwatch in every Kentucky county, and to hike the state’s most beautiful preserves and trails.

Nour Salam

Species Level Vegetation Monitoring – Letting the Trees, Forbs, Grasses, and Communities Speak for Themselves, Justin Thomas, Co-Director of NatureCITE, Director of the Institute of Botanical Training

Justin Thomas is the co-founder and Science Director of NatureCITE and the co-founder and Director of the Institute of Botanical Training. He conducts ecological and taxonomic research, instructs plant identification workshops, and serves as a scientific advisor to several conservation organizations in the central and eastern United States. 

Justin Thomas

Advancing Plant Conservation with Genetic and Epigenetic Tools: A case study of the federally threatened “Kentucky glade cress,” Leavenworthia exigua var. laciniata, Dr. Bridgette Williams & Dr. Christie Edwards, Missouri Botanical Garden

Brigette Williams is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Plant Conservation Genetics in the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Her primary research interests focus on understanding how plants with limited or fixed genetic diversity, such as rare and endangered species, respond to and survive changing environmental conditions in order to better conserve and protect native plants. She uses a range of approaches, including field-based and greenhouse experiments, in combination with genetic tools to identify important variation that can promote rare plants’ capacity to adapt and survive, and to enable their conservation.

Dr. Bridgette Williams

Buffalo clover has moderate seed trait diversity across geographic range

Jake Sanne*, Dillon P. Golding**, Peter Arnold*, Jenna Beville*, Derek Hilfiker*, Forrest Brown*, and Jonathan O. C. Kubesch*, ***

*Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences

**Hoot Owl Hollow Farm, Woodlawn, VA

***Country Home Farms, Pembroke, VA

Introduction

Buffalo clover (Trifolium reflexum), is a rare native clover present in the eastern United States. In Kentucky, this species occurs in the vicinity of Mammoth Cave, as well as further west. Conservation efforts in the eastern United States have maintained many of these native populations, though there is interest in using horticulture and agriculture to increase buffalo clover populations (Quesenberry et al., 2003; Kubesch, 2020; Kubesch et al., 2022). 

A limitation of these alternative approaches is the lack of data regarding the establishment of native clovers. For many rare plants, plugs are grown in nurseries and then planted to field sites (Littlefield, 2022). Even in the only published horticultural research, seed was grown into plugs for field plantings (Quesenberry et al., 2003). Buffalo clover has a fair degree of phenotypic variability in growth form, life history, and flower color across the geographic range. These differences in plant material might also suggest diversity in seed characteristics. 

Seed weight is an important seed characteristic for increasing buffalo clover populations. Seed weights are associated with increased establishment success (Catano et al., 2022; Westoby, 1998). Published seed weights of red (Trifolium pratense), white (Trifolium repens), and buffalo clover come from a publication using buffalo clover accessions from the Coastal Plain (Quesenberry et al., 2003). Coastal Plain accessions appear to have annual life histories whereas Ohio River Valley accessions appear to be short-lived biennials or perennials (Kubesch, unpublished observations). The present study sought to map and determine seed weights for buffalo clover. The authors hypothesized that Coastal Plain accessions would have different seed weights than the Ohio River Valley accessions.  

Materials and Methods

This study consisted of a mapping exercise, seed weight data collection, and then analysis. The mapping exercise discerned the positions of Coastal Plain and Ohio River Valley accessions using the geographic Fall Line as the demarcation between Coastal Plain and Ohio River Valley accessions. Accessions found on the corresponding side of the Fall Line were assigned to a Coastal Plain or Ohio River Valley. This mapping was conducted in ARCGIS software.

Seed weight data for a handful of accessions was accessible from the USDA GRIN system. Notably, these seed weight data overrepresented Coastal accessions rather than Ohio River Valley accessions. Additional data came from Quesenberry et al (2003) as well as manual measurements. Quesenberry et al (2003) selected accessions from TX, GA, MS, and FL. One accession in this study came from the Ohio River Valley. Seed from single plant selections of Cincinnati and Clarks River accessions were measured on a lab balance (Bonvoisin scale). 

Data Analysis

Seed weight was treated as a completely randomized design. Initial analysis at the state-level was considered to address potential accession grouping at local scales. Differences in seed weight between accessions from the Coastal Plain and Ohio River Valley were also considered to test other known differences in accessions (e.g. annual or biennial life history). All analyses were conducted in SAS v9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). PROC GLIMMIX coded for a simple  one-way ANOVA.

Continue reading Buffalo clover has moderate seed trait diversity across geographic range →

Third Annual Kentucky Botanical Symposium Videos

“Coming Together to Discuss Current Botany Projects, Conservation, and Collaboration in Kentucky and Beyond”

On Thursday, January 26, 2023, the Kentucky Native Plant Society and the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves held our third 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. Here are videos of all of the presentations.

Presenter Bios

Download a list of presenter contacts and links discussed in the presentations as a PDF.

KNPS Updates by KNPS President Jeff Nelson

Length: 12:16

State of Kentucky Plant Conservation by Tara Littlefield

Length: 19:17

Update on the Southeastern Flora Project by Dr. Alan Weakley

Length: 23:12

Modernizing Data Collection for Field Botany by Nour Salam

Length: 16:22

Species Level Vegetation Monitoring by Justin Thomas

Length: 14:59

Advancing Plant Conservation with Genetic and Epigenetic Tools by Dr. Bridgette Williams & Dr. Christie Edwards

Length: 23:27

KNPS Conservation Award presented by Zeb Weese to Dr. Bill Martin

Length: 13:57

Wildflower Week 2023 is Coming Together!

April 8 – 16, First Day Hikes, BotanyBlitz, & Wildflower Weekend

Design by Kendall McDonald

In less than 2 months, the Kentucky Native Plant Society’s Wildflower Week 2023 will begin!

Join with other nature lovers, families, community scientists, amateur naturalists, and professional botanists, from across the Commonwealth, as we explore the beauty and diversity of Kentucky’s native plant communities in April.

We are excited to be making some big changes this year: while our friends at Natural Bridge SRP have hosted Wildflower Weekend for over 30 years, we want to give parks across the state the opportunity to show off their unique ecology and geology, as well as their spring flora. To accomplish this, we plan to alternate Wildflower Weekend locations between Natural Bridge SRP in even-numbered years, and other Kentucky parks in odd-numbered years. For Wildflower Weekend 2023 (April 14th-16th) we’re delighted to be meeting at beautiful Cumberland Falls SRP & the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.

But our celebration isn’t just limited to Wildflower Weekend itself — continuing our new tradition, we will be holding a week-long BotanyBlitz (April 8-15) hosted on iNaturalist. To help us kick off the BotanyBlitz, we will host a number of BotanyBlitz First Day Hikes in natural areas across the Commonwealth. The First Day Hikes and the BotanyBlitz will be opportunities to broaden our spring wildflower scope to the entire state of Kentucky and allow us to highlight natural areas across the state!

Details are still being worked out, but we anticipate opening up registration to all of the events in early March. Kentucky Native Plant Society members will be given the first opportunity to register for the events, before they are opened up to the general public.

We have also created a page for Wildflower Week 2023, where the latest information will be posted as it is developed. Please visit and bookmark.

BotanyBlitz 2023

Leading up to Wildflower Weekend will be our third annual, week-long BotanyBlitz, which will run from Saturday, April 8, through Saturday, April 15, and will be hosted on the iNaturalist website. A BotanyBlitz is a community-science event that focuses on finding and identifying as many plant species as possible within a designated location and time period. To join in the fun, please log in or sign up for an iNaturalist account, then head to the BotanyBlitz project page and click “Join” in the top right corner.

Commencing on Saturday, April 8, and continuing all week, we are encouraging everyone to visit parks and natural areas throughout the Commonwealth, to find and photograph native plants (with an emphasis on those in bloom) and upload them to iNat. If you’re not sure how to identify a plant you see, you can use iNat’s excellent mobile app to suggest identifications based on your photos, and iNat’s community of expert botanists and naturalists can add comments to your “digital specimens” to confirm or help correct the ID.

BotanyBlitz 2023 First Day Hikes

To kick off 2023’s BotanyBlitz, on Saturday, April 8 we will host a series of First Day Hikes in parks and natural areas across the Commonwealth. These easy nature walks will be led by local botanizers and iNat users who are familiar with the local native flora you’ll encounter. Don’t forget to make sure you’ve joined the BotanyBlitz iNat project before embarking on the hike! And if you’re new to iNaturalist, we recommend signing up for an account, then joining our BotanyBlitz project, and downloading the iNaturalist mobile app in advance of the hike to give yourself time to “test drive” the app. You can check out these video tutorials to get started!

Although the First Day Hikes are intended to give the BotanyBlitz a strong start, you do not need to be an iNat user to sign up for these hikes — all wildflower enthusiasts are welcome to join in!

Wildflower Weekend 2023

The culmination of Wildflower Week will be our 34th annual Wildflower Weekend, scheduled for April 14, 15, & 16. The weekend will offer wildflower hikes Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, led by some of the best botanists in the state. These hikes will explore the region’s rich natural heritage and resources in Cumberland State Resort Park and the Big South Fork Recreation Area. Friday evening there will be a campfire social gathering to meet your fellow native plant enthusiasts. On Saturday night we will have a KNPS member meeting (the general public is welcome), several botanically oriented talks, and a native plant raffle.

This event is open to the public and kid-friendly. Admission is $10 for adults, $3 for ages 13-17, and free for ages 12 & under.

In June of 2022, a KNPS member posted an image on the KNPS Facebook group page of an old Wildflower Weekend t-shirt she had found in a thrift store. Asking among several longtime members, it turns out that in the 1990s, and into the early 2000’s, KNPS produced t-shirts for each Wildflower Weekend. This was such a fun idea, we have decided to bring back this great tradition. We wanted the design to be similar to the 1991 shirt, with native plant species as the central element. We also wanted to use species that would likely be flowering (or showing attractive foliage) in mid-April, in the area around Cumberland Falls. We surveyed the KNPS membership to find out which wildflower the community wanted to see on a t-shirt, and the winning species was the lovely American Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum).

Many thanks to the artistic talents of KNPS member Kendall MacDonald for creating this gorgeous illustration for our 2023 Wildflower Weekend! This beautiful image will be featured on an adult t-shirt, a coffee mug, a kid’s t-shirt, and an adult hoodie and all will be available for sale on our KNPS Gear Shop when event registration begins in early March.

Kendall McDonald, Wildflower Weekend Logo Designer

Short’s goldenrod (Solidago shortii) with Kendall McDonald

Kendall McDonald is an artist, botanist and lichenologist that grew up in Owen County, Kentucky. She developed a love for art and nature at a young age, and carried that with her into her education and career. After getting her bachelors degree in biology at Morehead State University, she started at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves as a heritage botanist and lichenologist. For the last 5 years, she has been an active member of the Kentucky Native Plant Society as a member of planning committees and a co-editor for the Lady Slipper newsletter. Her passion for biodiversity permeates her art, as her collection mostly consists of paintings of Kentucky native species and landscapes. She combined her love of spring ephemerals and wonderful Kentucky landscapes to create the design for the t-shirt and stickers for Wildflower Weekend 2023! The design is a close up of the gorgeous native Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) over a background of Cumberland Falls.

Successful buffalo clover establishment could require high seeding rates 

By Jonathan O. C. Kubesch*,**, Frank Reith*, Dillon P. Golding*,***, Jake Sanne*, Forrest Brown*,  Derek Hilfiker*, Joseph D. House****, Jenna Beville*, and Peter Arnold*,***** 

*Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Blacksburg, VA 

**Country Home Farms, Pembroke, VA 

***Hoot Owl Hollow Farm, Woodlawn, VA 

****Indiana National Guard, West Lafayette, IN 

*****Arnold Classic Farms, Chestertown, MD 

The public is familiar with red (Trifolium pratense) and white clover (Trifolium repens) growing throughout the Kentucky Commonwealth. However, North America, from Oregon to Florida, is home to a plethora of native clover species. Buffalo clover (Trifolium reflexum) is one of several clover species native to the eastern U.S.A. (Kubesch et al., 2022; Kubesch, 2020). This species demonstrates annual to short-lived perennial life histories, and has potential as a horticultural or agronomic crop (Quesenberry et al., 2003; Kubesch, 2020).  

Current efforts to increase native clover populations involve laudable efforts regarding site management, as well as conservation horticulture (e.g Littlefield, 2022). After a site is prepared for planting, plugs are produced. Conservation horticulture work currently executes the following procedure: 

  1. Germinate seeds on filter paper in petri dishes (Figure 1) 
  1. Transfer seedlings to cell pack trays 
  1. Pot up plants into small pots (Figure 2) 
  1. Plug individuals into spaced nurseries or maintain on benches for seed production 
Figure 1. Running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) germinating on filter paper under laboratory conditions. Smyth Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA January 30, 2023. 
Figure 2. Running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) growing in the greenhouse. University Greenhouses Bay 7A, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA February 3, 2023. 

In restoration and agronomic contexts, seeding clover has a logistic and resource advantage over plugging clovers. Seeding clover can reduce the need for intensive planting efforts, reduce soil disturbance, and ease transportation of unique plant material. Seeding approaches require a basis for setting a seeding rate and dates. Often, clovers are timed for planting between Valentines’ Day and St. Patrick’s Day in the Upper South. Introduced red and white clovers are commonly frost seeded every several years into cool-season pastures (Kubesch et al., 2020). 

Seeding clovers can also take advantage of physiological mechanisms that improve seed establishment. In the field, frost seeding involves defoliation of an existing grassland stand, broadcasting clover seed onto the stand, and letting freeze-thaw cycles incorporate the seed into the soil surface. Compared to many native and introduced grasses, clover seed coats allow the seed to survive freeze-thaw incorporation into the soil surface. Quesenberry et al (2003) reports that buffalo clover has a similar seed weight to introduced clovers. A common rate of pasture frost seeding is 4 lb/A red clover and 2 lb/A white clover (Kubesch et al., 2020). 

Optimizing rather than maximizing seeding rate is desirable given the limited seed availability of buffalo clover as well as the desire to increase planting area in restoration attempts. Managers want to get a good stand with as little seed as necessary. In addition to generating stand densities that justify direct seeding over plugging, an optimal seeding rate should generate ground cover that conserves soil as well as meets existing criteria for composition.  

The present experiment sought to determine whether a 2 lb/A or a 4lb/A seeding rate can optimize buffalo clover establishment relative to white and red clover. This objective was measured through emergence as well as cover assessments. The hypothesis of this study was that the higher seeding rate will achieve the aforementioned targets comparable to, or greater than, red clover and white clover. 

Continue reading Successful buffalo clover establishment could require high seeding rates  →