 Vice President of Kentucky Nature Preserve and we are here in Astel County today in the knobs region of Kentucky and you can see behind me the knobs are characterized by these conical shaped hills and we are going to see habitats varying from dry ridge tops to some of more music creek side stuff so hope you enjoy this. Hey everybody this is Vanessa, I'm a botanist with Kentucky Nature Preserves and I'm out here at Lely Mountain with Heidi today to see what's blooming. I am a huge fan of violets so I'm especially excited to see how many different violet species we encounter today and I'll talk about some key features for each species as well as how to tell some of the similar ones apart. This is Viola soraria, the common blue violet. This is really the standard model of violets. This is pretty much what most people think of when they hear the word violet. It's also the state flower of five or six different US states. It is a stemless violet so all of the leaves and the flowers arise from the same point in the ground right there. The leaves are heart shaped. They can be hairless or hairy, it's a pretty variable species. It's common in lawns, it's common in woodlands, it's pretty much all around. It's probably present in every county in Kentucky. Here we have Viola subsinuata. This violet is superficially similar to Viola palmata but this is what we would call a homophilus-leaved violet whereas Viola palmata is heterophilus because it starts out with heart shaped leaves and then becomes lobed over time. Viola subsinuata actually starts out with lobed leaves. On the top of Lily Mountain and have a lovely surprise of having the Columbine in bloom, Aqualigia canadensis and you see it has these beautiful two-tone flowers with the reddish maroon and yellow and it likes growing on these dry open rock outcrops. Here on the top of Lily Mountain is this beautiful redbud, fully in bloom, lovely springtime flowering tree here in Kentucky. Another flowering shrub on top of Lily Mountain. This is Roos aromatica or fragrant sumac. The flowers are just starting to bloom and the leaves are just starting to come out. We are here at this beautiful shale glade along the trail that is an open habitat with open rockiness and there are two beautiful species in bloom. We have this moss flox, flox subulata with the cleft petals, nice pink shade and then the darker shade in the middle and then we also have this birds foot violet Viola pedata with the deep purple and the light purple. There's also some yellow potentilla in bloom and some multi-flowered pussy toes and the glade is edged with some pine trees. Here we are at a large patch of what is undoubtedly our showiest native violet. This is birds foot violet Viola pedata and here we've got two varieties. One is the solid colored form and the other is kind of a bi-colored form that looks like a bit like a cultivated pansy. The leaves are finely divided like a birds foot and this yellow beauty growing right in the middle of the trail is called hypoxis hirsutis also known as eastern stargrass. It's very common, can grow in a variety of dry to music habitats. Here is a really nice population of perfolia at Belworth, you can see here it has a yellow flower that hangs down and this is as much as it opens up it's not quite as showy as some plants. There are two uvularios common in Kentucky. The way to tell them apart is that this one has hairless undersides to the leaf and then uvulari grandiflora has tiny little hairs on the underside of the leaf that's how you tell them apart. Here is Solomon seal also known as polyanatum biflorum it's not quite open yet but you can see in the axles of the leafs there's two little dangling flower buds. We have a flowering tree which is a flowering dogwood Cornish Florida and the interesting thing about this plant is that you can see here the flowers what looks like the petals are actually white bracts and the flowers are these little green things here in the middle. This is Viola palmata the palmate leaf violet it's similar to common blue violet it's stemless so the leaves and the flowers come from the same point in the ground but unlike the usual blue violet which always has heart shaped leaves the leaves of palmate violet become divided and each successive leaf becoming more divided so usually they start out like this heart shaped we get a little bit more divided a little bit more divided and then later in the summer they'll be quite lobed very cool it likes dry woods and you might mistake it for a regular blue violet but just check out the leaves it's real cool you see these here are actually a wild orchid this is Cipropidium acoly or the pink lady slipper and you'll find it in these dry acidic sites and right now we are in the knobs of Kentucky so common and they're just starting and you can see they're very fuzzy here is another native orchid this is called rattlesnake plantain or good year of pubescence it's not a spring wildflower but I just think the foliage is so beautiful that it's worth mentioning this will bloom sometime in mid-summer this violet would sorrel oxalis firelacy and it's one of the in my opinion prettier of the oxalis species the leaves have this pretty green shine to the top and then on the underside are actually purple if I can get one to show you there and the neat thing about this genus oxalis is that it's named after the fact that these plants actually have oxalic acid in them which is what makes them such a tasty treat if you are along the trail and need something tangy to munch on this is early Maddowoo the Lyftrum Diocum and you can see it has very dainty little flowers with those stamen hanging down and it is growing here on the edge of this little moist creek which is a common habitat for it and growing alongside it we have a little rostratum we also have a nice cluster of iris crostata dwarf crusted iris which I'm only seeing buds but maybe in another week or so this will be nicely in bloom here we have viola rostrata this is the long-sperd violet it is lavender-hued it's a dark purple center and the most interesting feature of this guy are these long spurs on the lower petal and that is what it's Latin name means rostrata it's a beak-like projection these are one of the stemmed violets so instead of all of the flowers and leaves coming from the same point at the base of the plants it sums up multiple stems and it has alternating leaves and flowers coming off the stems and this is just a super super cute violet here is a spring beauty in the Portula Casey family Claytonia virginica and you can see these petals they can vary from white to pink and have these pretty pink stripes throughout them they're often found on the forest floors as well as in lawns and you can see we are in a floodplain of this creek here and they're everywhere so here is a neat little plant it is a fern called southern adder's tongue also known as opio glossum picnosticum and the neat thing about this is that it has a sterile blade and a fertile stalk called sporophyte so much like other ferns and you can see them usually in little clusters we can see here there's about maybe five or six growing in this cluster and we are still in the floodplain of this little creek here we have ragweed which is pecra obelveda and you can see it has these beautiful yellow flowering heads and then the leaves along the stem can be very dissected whereas the basil leaves kind of have this roundish tapering down to the patio and oftentimes if you look at the underside of the leaf of the basil leaves they're purple so here we have may apple it's a very iconic spring wildflower here in Kentucky you can see when it has these two leaves like this that right in the middle is where the bud of the flower will be which may be in another week will be in flower and the neat thing about this plant is that it's clonal so if you look behind me there's just a large patch all of may apple all around me here we have a single-headed pussy toes also known as antinaria solitaria here at the base of this tree it's a spring ephemeral that will come out march and april and it likes these shaded music slopes my favorite thing about this plant is if you look at the underside of the leaf it is as soft as petting a cat hence the name pussy toes and then right next to it we have our native chickweed starry chickweed stelleria pubera and if you look closely the neat thing about this plant is where it looks like it has eight petals it's actually just four petals that are split down the middle here we have a nice cluster of three common spring ephemeral the first one which is very common spring i'm sorry through an enemy phylloctrum galactroides we have slender tooth wart which is cardamony angostata which it's helpful to know that angostata means slender so that would be easy way to remember this one the basil leaves of cardamony angostata have very large leaves compared to their carline leaves or their stem leaves which are much slender that's a good way to find this one and then the last one here is histonia cerulia or common bluits also known as quaker ladies this is one of my favorite spring ephemeral as it has this beautiful blue color contrasted by that yellow center and this one you can find commonly in these nice mossy patches along trail sides and it also grows commonly in people's yards here's another nicer example of the slender leaves cardamony tooth wart you can see it has the very slender leaves along the stem and then it has the thicker fatter leaves at the base that can have the purple sometimes underside here's a nice little cluster of toad shade which is a species of trillium sessil trillium trillium sessili it has the three leaves three sepals three petals and the petals are typically marooned and then unfortunately this little cluster is also being choked out by Japanese honeysuckle which is a very invasive vine that you can see crawling all around here but it still seems to be hanging on just fine this is a native but somewhat weedy violet species called viola bicolor the common name is American field pansy this is it's usually got light purple flowers with white and yellow centers some of the flowers are almost all white it has small spoon shaped leaves and very large foliaceous stipules and here you can see that the stipules are kind of cleft and they're wrapped around the stem it's a very cute little violet it's common and you can find it in relatively weedy places like pastures or on the trails thank you for joining me today for our hike at lily mountain I hope you've enjoyed it