With the passing of summer 2019, we are noticing stress on plants flowering or fruiting, dropping of leaves early from drought and heat, but still cooler mornings signaling the start of fall. The lush spring and summer have turned to a drought stricken landscape. But still the asters, goldenrods and ironweeds have bloomed magnificently. I can only hope for some fall colors, but with the record heat and drought for September I’m not holding my breath. My usually late summer/early fall ladies’ tresses orchid studies have been somewhat disappointing this year. Last year at this time we saw an abundance of ladies’ tresses, but this year they have declined possibly due to the drought conditions.

My colleagues and I have been lucky to have botanized in some spectacular natural areas this season, studying the riparian vegetation on the Green River, surveying remnant grasslands in the big barrens and southern Cumberland plateau, studying bogs and seeps in in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, and conducting forest biodiversity assessments across the state. And I know many of our KNPS members have also been seeking out their own botanical refuges to see familiar (plant) faces and places, and venturing out across the state to meet some new ones. It never gets old studying our native plants. There are so many interesting botanical areas in Kentucky that need further exploration, conservation and management. We still have a tremendous amount of underexplored and overlooked botanical diversity in the state.

Recently we have seen promising results in some of our restoration projects where our unique natural communities and rare plants are returning from the brink of extirpation. This gives us hope. But that does not mean that there are not troubles presently in our plant communities, and major threats on the horizon. Many of the best botanical sites in Kentucky were lost before we even knew they existed. The continuing work of groups like KNPS, Kentucky Nature Preserves, USFWS, land trusts, and others are critical to document and protect plant communities and intact forests before more sites are permanently lost.

Significant reports are emerging weekly predicting rapid climate changes, with oceans warming, melting glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost contributing to sea level rise of possibly one meter by centuries end, flooding coastal areas and impacting coastal vegetation in enormous ways. Forests are being burned and cleared in the Amazon, Indonesia, and the Congo with excessive pesticide and fertilizer likely to occur on agricultural lands that will follow. Temperatures rise, storms increase in strength, and precipitation becomes unstable with wetter winters and hotter summer droughts. The Louisville area is projected a 7-12 degree f. increase by the end of the century. The changes in our plant communities will be substantial. If these predictions are true, the children today will see a much different natural landscape in Kentucky 2080. Species extinction is also expected to rise, with recent studies predicting as many as 1 million species lost globally by centuries end? Our challenges are great, but that does not mean that we cannot be better stewards of our botanical diversity. KNPS must continue our mission to study and conserve our flora, act locally, think globally, and work diligently to further the existence of Kentucky’s native plants in the present and for centuries to come.

I’m proud of events that KNPS coordinated this year so far. From our annual spring wildflower weekend at Natural Bridge, to our popular sedge workshop, and the many hikes both formal and informal that further our deep connections with plants. We want to send a big THANK YOU to all the teachers and instructors who help us provide these programs to Kentuckians from all walks of life. We also have many people to THANK for leading hikes to Land between the Lakes, Hazeldell Meadow, Shakertown, and beyond. We organized an event to create the first updated botanical inventory in nearly 30 years of Mantle Rock in Livingston County, a unique property known more for its tragic history than the spectacularly rare sandstone glades and rock outcroppings protected on this site. As usual, there is never enough time to visit all the sites, so some have slipped through the cracks and will have to wait unit next year.

The KNPS board has been busy planning our fall meeting at the West Sixth Farm in Frankfort on October 12. We are holding our first native seed exchange and preparing for that has been exciting! In addition, we will have a membership meeting and hike around the farm to view any late summer flowers and to learn how to find the federally threatened Braun’s rockcress in a dormant state. I hope to see many native plant enthusiasts there.

We are partnering with Kentucky Nature Preserves this fall on several stewardship workdays, with bush honeysuckle removal on state nature preserves and natural areas to protect critical habitat for several globally rare plants in Franklin County. So please, if you have some free time in November and December, join us on those days and help us recover and conserve the federally listed Braun’s rockcress and globe bladderpod. Stay tuned for announcements of location and time.

And as always, if you would like to volunteer to help with any of our programs, please contact us! Check out the announcement for our native plant stewardship certification coordinator position with KNPS for 2020. Fingers crossed we will still get rain and some fall colors at least in our interior forests. Happy fall!

For the love of Kentucky Plants,

Tara Rose Littlefield

By: Heidi Braunreiter

The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves (KNP) is currently working on a restoration project in southern Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky. The preserve in which the project is located is home to one of the largest populations of the federally threatened white-fringeless orchid (Platanthera integrilabia) in Kentucky. This elusive orchid, also known as monkey-faced orchid, is a beautiful two-foot tall plant with white flowers blooming in late summer. Over a decade ago, the restoration project was initiated to boost population numbers of the orchid as it was experiencing detrimental population losses. As the project progressed, it transitioned into the restoration of the entire plant community, a Cumberland Plateau acid seep, in which the white-fringeless orchid grows.

A Cumberland Plateau acid seep in itself is a rarity across Kentucky’s landscape. These acid seeps occur in the headwaters of streams in eastern Kentucky on the Cumberland Plateau. They are transient wetland communities that change over time through the creation of canopy gaps in a forest and the subsequent closing in of the canopy. Historically, these canopy gaps were thought to be the result of natural old-growth tree falls, megafaunal disturbance, flooding and periodic fires. The canopy gaps created from the natural tree falls resulted in a depression in the soil and an increase in solar exposure to the ground. Flooding events would fill in the depression with water and a different suite of plant species were able to come in and thrive. Periodic fire and animal browsing helped to maintain these wetlands as open by keeping woody plants from growing and re-closing the canopy.

As a direct result of logging and fire suppression, acid seeps disappeared from the landscape. The remaining pockets of these communities in Kentucky are often associated with rare plants as the suite of species that grow there can be limited to this unique habitat type. Habitat loss is the biggest threat to the white-fringeless orchid. Other plants associated with acid seeps include white turtlehead (Chelone glabra), red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), grass pink (Calopogon tuberosus), sedges (Carex spp.), regal fern (Osmunda regalis), cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomea), club-spur orchid (Platanthera clavellata), yellow-fringed orchid (P. ciliaris), crested yellow orchid (P. cristata), peat moss (Sphagnum spp.), and netted chainfern (Woodwardia areolata).

The ideal habitat for white-fringeless orchid is not entirely known to scientists as there are many factors involved (hydrology, solar exposure, pollinators, plant associates, etc.). For the past 13 years, KNP botanist Tara Littlefield has been collecting data on this population of white-fringeless orchid to track the progress of the restoration project, as well as glean information about what makes an ideal white-fringeless orchid habitat. This research has led to a better understanding of the seep hydrology, orchid population trends, as well as pollinator dynamics.

KNP determined the best method to save the white-fringeless orchids was to recreate its ideal habitat. To restore the acid seeps, KNP land managers have maintained them in a static state of open canopy rather than letting the canopy naturally close over time. They have maintained the seeps in this way by thinning the canopy and understory through intensive manual removal of woody and invasive species from the interior and fringes of the seeps. In the coming years, prescribed fire will also be utilized once the effects of the fire on the orchid are better understood. These methods have allowed KNP to achieve their goal of increasing the orchid population numbers.

Now that the Cumberland Plateau acid seeps are in better conditions, KNP’s restoration project has once again evolved and expanded to include the uplands adjacent to the seeps. These uplands are heavily forested with low plant diversity and the management goal is to restore them to Cumberland Plateau pine-oak barrens, another rare plant community in decline in eastern Kentucky. Pine Barrens are open woodlands made up of a mix of sandstone outcrops, grasslands, and open pine-oak woodlands with an open understory.

Historically, pine barrens were maintained by periodic fire keeping the understory and canopy open. Due to logging and fire suppression, this community is greatly reduced and altered in Kentucky. The majority of the remnant pine barrens in Kentucky are restricted to powerline corridors and roadsides in the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF). Consequently, many of the plants once associated with this plant community are also rare. Wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) for example, is restricted to this habitat in Kentucky and can be found primarily on roadsides of the DBNF. Population numbers of wood lily have plummeted in recent decades. Numerous other plants of concern also depend on this habitat including Ten-lobed False Foxglove (Agalinis decemloba), Yellow Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria), Bearded Skeleton-grass (Gymnopogon ambiguous), Southern Crabapple (Malus angustifolia), Appalachian sandwort (Minuartia glabra), Racemed Milkwort (Polygala polygama), Hairy Snoutbean (Rhynchosia tomentosa), Chaffseed (Schwalbea americana), Eastern Silvery Aster (Symphyotrichum concolor), and Roundleaf Flameflower (Talinum teretifolium).

Currently, KNP land managers are restoring the uplands to pine barrens by thinning out softwood trees, such as black gum and maple, and leaving hardwood trees, such as shortleaf pine and oaks. They have left a buffer of forests around the white-fringeless orchid seeps until there is a better understanding of how the orchids will react to periodic fire. Prescribed fire will be utilized in coming years to maintain the woodlands in an open state and help rejuvenate the grasslands. Josh Lillpop, KNP Natural Areas Branch Manager, said of the project, “so much of what we are trying to do right now is related to increasing the sunlight on the forest floor. We have already seen some interesting things showing up where canopy gaps have been created.” In the future, they may be able to reintroduce some of the rare plants, such as wood lily, to these pine barrens where they can thrive.

KNP’s restoration project has changed from a single species focus to overhauling an entire ecosystem in eastern Kentucky. Littlefield said of the project, “it’s important to protect this federally threatened plant, but it also led us down this path of restoring all of these rare ecosystems that are interconnected in the Cumberland Plateau. We’re hoping to eventually connect the pine barrens project to the seep project as we learn more about the fire effects and get a handle on the invasive species.”