Devin Rodgers, Botantist at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves
On Saturday, September 6, 2025, Devin Rodgers, KNPS member and Botanist for the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, led a hike of seven KNPS members at Crooked Creek State Nature Preserve, in Lewis County, KY. Though many of the asters (Symphyotrichum spp.) were not yet blooming, the hike’s focus on the sunflower family, Asteraceae, successfully highlighted flowering plants of many genera such as snakeroot (Ageratina), Mistflower (Conoclinium), thoroughworts (Eupatorium), Joe-pye-weed (Eutrochium), Blazingstars (Liatris), rosinweeds (Silphium), Goldenrod (Solidago), and Ironweed (Vernonia).
The rare grassland type present at the preserve, the Bluegrass Cat Prairie, is a unique assemblage of plants unlike any other calcareous grassland in Kentucky, though there are a few similarities to scattered grasslands over dolomite in the outer Bluegrass extending south and west towards Louisville. These prairies contained some of the most interesting and spectacular blooms with a sea of prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum), stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida), and three different blazingstars (Liatris cylindracea, Liatris aspera, Liatris spicata), of which two were blooming. Additional uncommon species flowering in the prairies included Southern obedient-plant (Physostegia virginiana ssp. praemorsa), Gattinger’s agalinis (Agalinis gattingeri), and Earleaf Foxglove (Agalinis auriculata).
