The Vascular Flora of Boyle County, KY
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Eastern Kentucky University Encompass Online Theses and Dissertations Student Scholarship January 2015 The aV scular Flora of Boyle County, KY Heidi M. Braunreiter Eastern Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: https://encompass.eku.edu/etd Part of the Botany Commons Recommended Citation Braunreiter, Heidi M., "The asV cular Flora of Boyle County, KY" (2015). Online Theses and Dissertations. 242. https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/242 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Encompass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Online Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Encompass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Vascular Flora of Boyle County, Kentucky By Heidi M. Braunreiter Bachelor of Science University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin 2010 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Eastern Kentucky University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE May, 2015 Copyright © Heidi Braunreiter, 2015 All rights reserved ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to Charles Elmer Siewert & Soren Michael Jensen. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank all of the field assistants who volunteered to help me. Thanks to the Kentucky Academy of Science, the Kentucky Native Plant Society, and Eastern Kentucky University’s Department of Biological Sciences for providing me with funds to travel to my collection sites. Thanks to Dr. Ralph Thompson and Dr. Ross Clark for their assistance in plant identification. Thanks to the Central Kentucky Wildlife Refuge, the Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site, and the Gwinn Island Fishing Resort for allowing me to collect at those sites. Thanks to Rob Paratley and Marcy Rucker for providing access to the herbarium collections at the University of Kentucky, and to Drs. Jonathan Green, Anne Lubbers, Ralph Thompson, Allen Risk, Brad Ruhfel, and Mary Whitson, of the University of Kentucky, Centre College, Berea College, Morehead State University, Eastern Kentucky University, and Northern Kentucky University, respectively, for allowing use of specimens from their herbaria. Thanks to Robert Pace for creating maps and helping with database and formatting issues. Thanks to Dr. Brad Ruhfel and Dr. Charles Elliott for being on my committee and for their comments and assistance. And finally, I want to thank Dr. Ronald Jones for his guidance throughout this project, and particularly for his assistance with plant identification and the editing of this thesis. iv ABSTRACT The vascular flora of Boyle County, Kentucky, was conducted from March 2013 to March 2015. Boyle County is located in central Kentucky and is part of the Bluegrass Physiographic Section. A total of 127 families, 392 genera, and 722 species, varieties, and subspecies were documented from Boyle County. Twelve plant communities were described: acidic mesophytic forest, acidic sub-xeric forest, acidic xeric forest, Bluegrass woodland, bottomland ridge/terrace forest, calcareous mesophytic forest, calcareous sub-xeric forest, depression pond/mudflat, dry limestone cliff/outcrops, riparian forest, wet prairie/meadow, and one rare state- listed plant community, the shale/siltstone glade. Five rare species with state rankings were discussed: American chestnut (Castanea dentata), eastern eulophus (Perideridia americana), grass pink (Calopogon tuberosus), softleaf arrowwood (Viburnum molle), and yellow lady-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum). Seventeen other species that are rare, infrequent, or of special interest are also discussed. There were 156 non-native species (22% of the flora), and 80 of these species are considered invasive in Kentucky. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 1 STUDY AREA ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Climate ........................................................................................................................................................ 5 Watersheds ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Natural Regions ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Geology ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 Soils ........................................................................................................................................................... 10 Topography ........................................................................................................................................... 12 Land Use ................................................................................................................................................. 14 Vegetation and Flora ......................................................................................................................... 16 Major Collecting Sites ........................................................................................................................ 18 MATERIALS AND METHODS .............................................................................................................. 19 RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................................... 21 Floristic Summary .............................................................................................................................. 21 Vegetation .............................................................................................................................................. 22 Aquatic and Wetland Communities ........................................................................................ 23 Floodplain Forests ......................................................................................................................... 23 Upland Forests ................................................................................................................................ 24 Ash-Oak Savanna of the Bluegrass .......................................................................................... 26 Grasslands ......................................................................................................................................... 26 Rock Outcrops and Cliffsides ..................................................................................................... 27 Disturbed Communities .............................................................................................................. 29 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................................... 30 General Flora ........................................................................................................................................ 30 Non-native Species ............................................................................................................................. 31 Rare Species Overview ..................................................................................................................... 33 Rare Species Accounts ...................................................................................................................... 33 Species of Interest .............................................................................................................................. 39 Documented Vegetation of Boyle County ................................................................................. 39 Current Vegetation of Boyle County ........................................................................................... 45 vi SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 50 LITERATURE CITED ............................................................................................................................... 52 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................. 56 Annotated List of the Vascular Plants of Boyle County ...................................................... 57 Exotic Pest Plants of Kentucky in Boyle County ................................................................. 115 Photographs ....................................................................................................................................... 117 vii LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE Table 1. Taxonomic distribution of vascular plant species in Boyle County, KY. ....... 21 Table 2. Native plant species in Boyle County, Kentucky that have not been collected since 1950. ................................................................................................................................................. 22 Table 3. Species richness of ten Kentucky county floras with similar physiography.31 viii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE Figure 1. Location of Boyle County, Kentucky. ............................................................................