As we begin a new year it can be fun and informative to look back and reflect on the Society’s activities in 2023. Beginning in January and ending in November, with events and activities across the Commonwealth, KNPS had another great year spreading the message of the value, importance, and beauty of the native plants and ecosystems of Kentucky. We hope you enjoy these images and descriptions of the Society’s 2023 activities and that you will be able to join us in the field in 2024.

January 26th, 2023
3rd Annual, Virtual, Kentucky Botanical Symposium

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. Click on the link above to access videos of the presentations.

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
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
Kentucky Native Plant Society Update – Jeff Nelson, KNPS President

Tara Littlefield, OKNP State Botanist, Plant Conservation & Biological Assessment Branch Manager & KPCA Coordinator
Dr. Alan Weakley, North Carolina Botanical Garden & Southeast Botanist
Nour Salam, Franklin Audubon Society Presdient
Justin Thomas, NatureCITE Co-director
Dr. Bridgette Williams, Missouri Botanical Garden

April 8th – April 15th, 2023
KNPS Wildflower Week Botany Blitz 2023

In the week before Wildflower Weekend 2023, we held our third, week-long BotanyBlitz 2023. A BotanyBlitz was an effort to document as many plant species as possible within Kentucky during the week preceding Wildflower Weekend 2023. The BotanyBlitz is hosted on the community science website iNaturalist, and participants will be using the iNaturalist mobile app (or website, if your preferred camera is not a smartphone!) to upload photos of budding and blooming plants they observe in local parks, state parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and nature preserves.

66 observers made a total of 3,747 plant observations during the Blitz. Those observations were comprised of 650 species, which included 603 vascular plants, 37 mosses, and 10 liverworts. 165 identifiers from both Kentucky and other states helped to identify the observations we all made.

Blue Eyed Mary (Collinsia verna) @spenner
Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum) @reupurtbones
Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) @ktuttlewheeler
Pinxter Flower (Rhododendron periclymenoides) @riparian_paparrazi
Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) @sbrockway
Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) also featuring Stella, Henry, and their hiking cat Benson @tararoselittlefield

April 8th, 2023
Botany Blitz First Day Hikes

To kick off BotanyBlitz 2023 and Wildflower Week, on Saturday, April 8, we hosted a series of First Day Hikes in parks and natural areas across the Commonwealth. These easy nature walks were led by local botanizers who know the native plant species that were encountered in each area. The First Day hikes are meant to start the BotanyBlitz project, getting folks out and reporting plant observations to the iNaturalist project.

April 14th – 15th, 2023
Wildflower Weekend 2023
Cumberland Falls State Resort Park

On April 14th & 15th, over 150 KNPS members and friends came together at Cumberland Falls SRP for the Society’s 34th Annual Wildflower Weekend. For the first time since Wildflower Weekend began in 1989, the event was held in a different location from Natural Bridge SRP. Rest assured, we are not abandoning our friends at Natural Bridge SRP, who have hosted Wildflower Weekend for over 30 years. KNPS plans to now alternate Wildflower Weekend locations between Natural Bridge SRP in even numbered years, and other Kentucky parks in odd numbered years.

Wildflower walks and hikes are the defining activities of every Wildflower Week. This year, beginning at noon on Friday and running through the end of the day on Saturday, we enjoyed a record number 19 wildflower walks, led by 30 of the best botanists and naturalists in the country. Exploring the amazing diversity of the plant communities in Cumberland Falls state park, Natural Arch Scenic Area, & the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, participants learned about and enjoyed dozens of native plant species, the fauna associated with them, and the amazing geology and hydrology that surrounds them.

Friday night was our campfire social. Dozens of KNPS members and friends came together for an evening of fun, fellowship, and s’mores around the campfire next to the Cumberland River. During the social, James Kiser, naturalist, hike leader, and Sat. night speaker, took several groups out to search the cliff face for salamanders. The searches were great fun and successful as the groups made multiple observations of several different species of these shy, nocturnal amphibians.

On Saturday evening we came together for a KNPS update, evening talks, and our annual raffle. An overflow crowd filled the Moonbow Room at the Cumberland Falls DuPont Lodge. James Kiser gave a fascinating presentation on “Southern Kentucky Landscape Features and Associated Rare Species“. Chris Benda’s talk was “Botanical Humor: You Never Knew Plants Were So Funny“. The evening ended with the annual raffle. The grand prize of the raffle, as has been the case for many years, was a beautiful carving by KNPS member, Bob Van Hoff. This was a hand-carved, hand-painted depiction of a flowering pink lady-slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule) at three stages of inflorescence development. The winners of the carving were Mary Alice and Chris Bidwell, long time members of KNPS. Besides the carving, we also raffled off over 30 native plants. The plants were generously given to KNPS by our partners Ironweed Nursery in Waddy, KY, Dropseed Native Plant Nursery, in Goshen, KY, and The Arboretum at the State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.

Long-tailed salamander(Eurycea longicauda)

June 27th & June 28th-29th, 2023
Wetland Plant ID Workshops

On June 27-29, 2023, the Kentucky Native Plant Society hosted two Wetland Plant ID Workshops at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, KY. June 27 was a one day workshop for beginners and June 28-29 was a two day workshop for intermediate level participants. The workshops were well attended with 26 participants combined between both workshops, despite some challenging weather.

Participants visited several areas of John James Audubon State Park and nearby Sloughs Wildlife Management area. The workshop instructor, Nathanael Pilla of Midwest Biological Surveys, focused on more difficult taxa such as graminoids and aquatic species. He took students through overarching characteristics of wetland plants, such as unique adaptations for seed dispersal by water and drought tolerance.

Henderson County, where the workshop was located, has been understudied botanically, leading to several new county records being discovered over the course of the three days. These new county records include multiple species of duckweed (Lemna sp.), watermeal (Wolffia sp.), broad waterweed (Elodea canadensis, S3), and joint paspalum (Paspalum distichum). Some other highlights of the workshop were seeing multiple state watch-listed species (S3/S4), including hemlock water-parsnip (Sium suave) and white-nymph (Trepocarpus aethusae).

Beginner class starting on the first day.
John James Audubon SP wetlands.
Beginner class looking at Lemnas
Sloughs WMA
Wolffia sp. through handlens
Class at Sloughs WMA
John James Audubon SP wetlands.
Class looking at Hydrocotyle ranunuloides and other wetland plants
Aquatic milkweed (Asclepias perennis)
Class at John James Audubon SP
Water hemlock (Sium suave)

October 28th, 2023
KNPS Fall Meeting

On Saturday, October 28, 2023, KNPS members and friends came together for a day of botanical education and exploration at John James Audubon SP, in Henderson, KY. The day began in the the Audubon Theater located in the John James Audubon Museum and Nature Center with updates from KNPS leadership on the Society’s activities in 2023 and plans for 2024. Following the updates the group enjoyed two talks; a presentation about Lea’s bog lichen (Phaeophyscia leana) by KNPS Vice President, Kendall McDonald and a talk about the native pollinators found in forests by KNPS member and an Invertebrate Biologist at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, Katie Cody.

After the presentations, the group came together in one of the park’s picnic shelters for fellowship and a picnic lunch. Discussions about our native plants and their insect associates were wide ranging and quite enjoyable and educational.

Following lunch the group separated to go on a series of walks in the wetlands and forest at Audubon Park and Sloughs WMA. Unfortunately just as the walks began, the skies opened up and it began pouring and the walks had to be canceled. This was bittersweet as the area was in severe drought and the rain was greatly needed but we were looking forward to exploring the unique habitats in the area. We hope to schedule one or more field trips in this area in 2024.

June thru November, 2023
Field Trips

Field trips have always been an important educational tool of KNPS. Each year we try to schedule field trips to several natural areas across the Commonwealth.

June 17, 2023 – Lilley Cornett Woods, Letcher Co. – LCW Staff
July 29, 2023 – Fleming WMA, Fleming Co. – Alan Abbott, joint field trip with Kentucky chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
July 29, 2023 – Ballard WMA, Ballard Co. – Jeff Nelson, cancelled due to excessive heat indexes
September 13, 2023 – Pine Creek Barrens, Bullitt Co. – Alan Abbott
November 4, 2023 – Berea Woods, Madison Co. – David Taylor

Pollinator Garden Grants Pilot Program

In 2023 KNPS partnered with horticultural education groups across the state to provide funds and educational support for pollinator gardens. 2023 was a pilot year to find partners throughout the state and work out the kinks.

We partnered with organizations with an education mission because the success rate of grant gardens is small. With a two-year educational support commitment from our educational partners, we hope to improve the success rate.

In this pilot year, KNPS provided grants of $500 to six schools.

Garrard County High School (Garrard Co)
EKU Science for Sustainable Living Initiative (SSLI) student group campus pollinator gardens (Madison Co)
EKU Scholar House preschool (Madison Co)
Liberty Hall Historic Site in Frankfort (Franklin Co)
Second Street School in Frankfort (Franklin Co)
Tichenor Middle School in Erlanger (Kenton Co)