A rare wild dill grows in the aftermath of Asian bush honeysuckle removal

In 2010 the United States Coast Guard got to volunteer in a special little portion of Cherokee Park under the guidance of Joe Manning, columnist with the LEO and then Zone Steward for Olmsted Parks Conservancy of the Glen Lily management area, known for being the most biodiverse portion of Frederick Law Olmsted's Cherokee Park (Manning, Haragan). Though the bridge immediately downstream of the Bernheim Bridge was part of Olmsted's original 1897 "as built" park, this is an area purchased later, which saw Olmsted's sons' hand in its design. It was in this same area that the rare wild dill (Perideridia americana) would reemerge from these efforts. 

In 1941 Mabel Slack lists a slew of plants now deemed rare or unusual in the Outer Bluegrass Region of Kentucky in this exact area: Eastern yampeh, or wild dill, wild parsley (Perideridia americana syn. Eulophus americanus) is among the rarest of them all. (Purple cliff brake (Pellaea atropurpurea), blunt lobed cliff fern (Woodsia obtusa), sleepy catchfly (Silene antirrhina), and Alum root (Heuchera americana) have all been rediscovered in the same areas described by Slack: "limestone cliffs near Ward's Mill and Alta Rd.")

The Kentucky Mountain Bike Association knows the wild dill area of Glen Lily as "Montana", a technical rocky trail which leads into another biodiversity gem of Glen Lily downstream of the Bernheim Bridge: "No-Net Trail" which traverses a rare native cane (Arundinaria gigantea) population. The cane was absent from Slack's flora, suggesting that somehow it had been eaten away by the time of Slack by sheep, goats and horses, in the days of bridle paths, and before lawn mowers, and zero-turn gas-powered lawnmowers and diesel tractors. 

The wild dill site (Glen Lily- B North) grows hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), "invasive" Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), chinquapin oak (Quercus muhlenbergii), redbud (Cercis canadensis), Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra), bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), Standish honeysuckle (Lonicera standishii) and Asian bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii). The latter two, both considered "invasive species" were not even present at the time of Slack in 1941, and have mostly come in to Cherokee Park since the 1974 tornado's disturbance, and by intentional planting by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for erosion control.

Otherwise a flowering plant easily mistaken for onions: crow poison (Nothoscordum bivalve) and false Solomon Seal (Maianthemum racemosum) also grow. A small amount of bottlebrush rye (Elymus hystrix) also grows out of heavy clay, and highly eroded soil, with dolomitic gravel from the cliffs above. Otherwise a weedy mish-mosh of common chickweed (Stellaria pubera) and hairy bitter cress (Cardamine hirsuta) plague the calcareous seeps that water this slope. 

Eastern yampeh, or wild dill was rare even in 1941 according to Slack. It is also known as "thicket parsley." It is a perennial plant with stems hairless and rounded. Its bloom is white in April-May and was first observed in flower in 2011 on April 21st, on a botanical walk of herbalist Myron Hardesty and Josh Wysor the year following the Coast Guard honeysuckle removal. It had been previously misidentified as a waif wild fennel plant (Foeniculum vulgare). Its leaves are longer and thicker than Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota). 

Wild dill was never mentioned in McMurtrie's 1819 "Florula Louisvillensis." A close relative to wild dill known as squaw's potato is listed as edible by Plants for a Future database: Perideridia gairdneri. It is not known if the plant is toxic or not, but it is suspected to be non-toxic. 

The period of bloom runs from April 21, 2011 first bloom and April 23, 2013 almost blooming as a first bloom to May 27 as an end bloom in 2013. 

The Reappearance of the Crested Coral Root Orchid: A Tale of the Orchid and the Vine

The research of noted orchid scholar Stephen R. Hill at the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana would suggest that we have a gem that in 2008 may have approached a national record. The population of Crested Coral Root Orchid that grows near Ward's Mill in Louisville's Cherokee Park was one of the largest of its kind in 2006-2008. Dr. Hill teaches in the university's Division of Biodiversity and Ecological Entymology. A population in Oklahoma is believed to have outnumbered the potentially 100-150+ plants seen in Cherokee Park in 2008-2010, numbering several hundred in a blackjack/post oak community. No other populations approach these two, within the research of Dr. Hill.

A photo collage on Flickr would suggest that the orchid occurs at a similar density, but fewer numbers, numbering more than dozens of plants at the Atlanta, Georgia Botanical Gardens. According to Dr. Hill and other botanists consulted for his Conservation assessment, it is rare for the orchid to occur in populations larger than a dozen flowers in any locality it occurs. 

Crested coral root (Hexalectris spicata), is a saprophytic orchid; meaning, it lives in symbiosis with the roots of the trees which occur in "Glen Lily" as the area is known by the Olmsted Parks Conservancy. This fungal relationship feeds off the nutrient sharing fungal network known as mycotrophic, or ectomychorrhizal fungi. 

The orchid may disappear underground for periods of up to ten years, and it is not known how to propagate it. A flower resembling purple asparagus with notes of brown and pink, first rises from ground during the end of June, once warm weather rises to sweltering conditions leading into the 4th of July. Crested coral root blooms until at least the last week of August, with 2013 being an unusually cool summer, finally warming up into the mid 90s by the last week. 

When open, the orchid has softly painted brushstrokes of purple upon a yellow lower. Spiderwebs are seen on the orchids, but the flowers are not believed to be pollinated. What we see above ground in the individual flower stems are our only clue as to the presence of this unusual orchid.

The white tailed deer living in Cherokee Park are believed to browse on the orchids, although chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons or opossums may also dine upon the orchids. 

What the orchid likes is clear. It loves thin, rich soil, limestone, open woods and glades. In Cherokee Park, it appears to be associated with Shumard oak (Quercus shumardii), black oak (Quercus velutina), chestnut oak (Quercus montana), chinquapin oak (Quercus muhlenbergii), blue ashes (Fraxinus quadrangulata), green ashes (Fraxinus pensylvanica) American elm (Ulmus americana), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), white oak (Quercus alba), shagbark hickory (Carya laciniata), Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra), Pawpaw (Asimina triloba), blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium), Sugar maple (Acer saccharum), Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), redbud (Cercis canadensis) and bladdernut (Staphylea trifoliata). This would be known as a subxeric hardwood forest. The soil is well drained due to its slope with rich black topsoil occuring over heavy clay.

After a careful study of the other locations nationwide the crested coral root occurs, the following plants all are potential associates for this orchid. 

While in 2008,  a non-native "invasive" ground cover called "five leaved Akebia" or "chocolate vine" (Akebia quinata) blanketed the ground in this patch of open woods, the crested coral root existed in numbers as high as 100-150+ plants (Patricia D. Haragan).

The vine is called chocolate vine for its reportedly delicious fruit, which has only occurred once in the observation of Haragan, once Olmsted Parks Conservancy's staff botanist, publishing a flora this fall of the plants of the Olmsted Parks of Louisville, Kentucky.

So in 2008, the record setting year of the Coral Root, the ground cover was less than 1 foot deep soil and broken limestone from a Dolomitic cliff that straddles the boundary of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I would postulate that the ground cover may have provided the following benefits to the orchid: it maintained disturbance, by strangling any young saplings that threatened the openness of the forest floor. It therefore prevented the shrub layer from invading the open conditions the orchid seems to prefer. But don't think of it as sunlight competition. 

The orchid mainly lives underground. So it is mainly a matter for soil science to sort out. The chemistry of the fungal and bacterial colonies that live in the soil, coupled with the characteristics of the above ground trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbs (wildflowers) produces this orchid. It grows in association with the other plants, an ecologist would say.

The native grasses of this area are limited to bottlebrush rye (Elymus hystrix), while the forbs consist of tall American bellflower (Campanulastrum americanum), tall upland boneset (Eupatorium serotinum), and three lobed black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba). A small amount of false Solomon's Seal occurs in this area as well (Maianthemum racemosum) and Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolius).

Besides Five Leaved Akebia, the other "invasive species" are garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), winter creeper (Euonymus fortuneii) - only one orchid has ever been seen growing from the winter creeper, and Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), which grows on the cliffs above the orchid, but has probably not invaded the soil occupied by Hexalectris spicata.

As the exotic Akebia vine has been controlled by foliar applications of glyphosate herbicide, the warnings of Dr. Stephen R. Hill have come true. He warns in "Conservation Assessment for the Crested Coral Root Orchid (Hexalectris spicata (Walter) Burnhart)" that fungicides and herbicides should not be used over a population of the orchid. Fire, should be used in preference of the other two methods to manage pathogenic fungi, or invasive species, is the inference suggested by his research.

The orchid population has been diminishing each year since 2008 in size. In 2010 as many as 100+ orchids occurred (Wysor). It was also 2010 that the United States Coast Guard under the management of Joe Manning released another rare plant suppressed by bush honeysuckle: Eastern yampeh (Perideridia americana). 

This same stump treatment method with glyphosate not foliar sprayed but rather carefully painted on cut stumps has restored another rare plant in the same area: Eastern yampeh (Perideridia americana) a wild relative of the carrot which is exceedingly rare in Kentucky, listed in Mabel Slack's 1941 Cherokee Park flora, and was rediscovered in flower in April 2011 by Wysor.

Then in winter of 2013 another rediscovery of purple cliff brake (Pellaea atropurpurea) and blunt lobed cliff fern (Woodsia obtusa). These discoveries have confirmed to a greater degree what Pat Haragan's survey of Cherokee Park had initially suggested: the Glen Lily area has the greatest biodiversity and intact remnant plant communities of the entire Louisville Park system, with a few exceptions at Iroquois Park.

In fall 2011, the chocolate vine was sprayed, killing much of the ground cover where the orchid resided resulting in a loss of topsoil, and exposing the heavy clay subsoil (Wysor). The upper areas above the trail along the cliff were sprayed last, as part of several 8% foliar glyphosate applications resulting in a loss of a test control (Wysor).

However when in 2012, during summer, Olmsted Parks Conservancy Woodlands Restoration Crew removed Asian bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) and Standish honeysuckle (Lonicera standishii) using a 25-50% concentrated stump treatment on chainsawed stumps, a new control plot emerged. On very sporadic centers, a light infestation of shrub cover now provided the control necessary to test herbicide application in proximity to the orchid. Due to the low density of the invasion, the amount of herbicide used was less than that used in the foliar applications to treat Akebia vine. It would seem the theory of David Fothergill, 2008 Olmsted Parks' Woodlands Restoration Manager, now with the US Forest Service may have been correct: stump treatments of higher concentration herbicide are less harmful to mychorrhizal associations than blanket foliar treatments at high concentrations.

What has occurred is that the population of the orchid has spread into the area previously occupied by the Asian bush honeysuckle, which is known to nitrify the soil, adding excess nitrogen, encourage invasive earthworms, and result in a quick breakdown of leaf litter according to Dr. Margaret Carreiro, Urban Ecology Professor of the University of Louisville, who has spoken on the phenomena on local television interviews spotlighting the environment. 

Since 2011's honeysuckle removal, where the population of the orchid has spread and has already started to build up a deposition of leaves, the humus is primarily oak leaves: black oak (Quercus velutina), chinquapin oak (Quercus muhlenbergii), red oak (Quercus rubra), Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra) blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata) and red elm (Ulmus rubra). It is not known how the death of the blue ashes and green ashes in this area will impact the growth of the orchid. But oaks are most important to this relationship, according to Hill.

Additionally, as Dutch Elm's Disease fungus has occurred in Louisville since the 1930s, it is not known to have an impact on the growth of the orchid. But when Mabel Slack wrote her flora in 1941, she does not list elms in her flora whatsoever. Whether this was an omission, or she declined to collect specimens for fear of spreading the fungus, we may never know. It is possible that even seedling elms had been deleted from Cherokee Park during the initial spread of the disease, though this is hard to fathom from their relative abundance in modern day times. 

The vine may also have provided moisture and shade from sunlight during periods of drought, by protecting the top of the slope's topsoil layer from rain, or sun during daylight hours to this south-facing slope. The vine's evergreen growth habit may have protected soil from winter freezing, and helped capture moisture from melting snows, ice. 

At the time of this publication, Sept. 1, 2013, the orchid has just gone underground for the growing season. Last Saturday, as I walked with a labor organizer with AFSCME, we counted less than a dozen still blooming. Troubleingly, there were never more than 35 orchids in bloom, and as few as 50-60 all year counting all the stems eaten, wilted, or trampled. 

The Akebia vine lay at heights of no more than one foot depth, climbing the undergrowth whenever it could, obtaining heights up to 30 feet, still visible in some of the American elms growing on Beargrass Creek across from a Native Cane planting at the design of Charles David Fothergill, Woodlands Restoration Manager in 2008, the year of the record. Noted Kentucky botanist and cane plantationist Julian Campbell helped guide the planting effort which simulated a design by Frederick Law Olmsted used along the entrance road of the Biltmore Estate, which Olmsted besides Cherokee Park was his final design.

From the vantage point of the edge of the orchid population to the East, where pawpaws grow, and produced fruit this year, one can see the restored Olmstedian cane plantation across Beargrass Creek, where water willows (Justicia americana) grow upon the shoals of the Creek at a rare location where the stream bank is still healthy, because it runs across a gigantic slab of Jeffersonville Limestone the surging sewers of Beargrass Creek have not been able to flush into the Ohio River, with its mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Japanese chaff flower (Achyranthes japonica), and wild bean (Phasoleus polystachios). 

Missing from this equation is the Short's goldenrod (Solidago shortii) not yet discovered at the time of McMurtrie's Florula Louisvillensis. Missing also is the big leaved scurf pea (Orbexilum stipulatum), now believed extinct, that may have grown on Beargrass Creek at this location. 

Also we do not have bobcats, bears, wolves, elk, or bison. 

How will the crested coral root orchid persist into the future of this biome? Only time will tell. 

Louisville, Kentucky has a rich botanical history. As a city founded in 1777, there's a long written record of the floral discoveries Europeans made in this unique intersection of the Knobs region, the Outer Bluegrass Region and the Ohio River Valley floodplains. Famed botanists such as Andre Michaux, his son Andre Michaux, Constantine S. Rafinesque and Charles Wilkins Short, Robert Peter, Henry Griswold, P. A. Davies, Max Medley, Patricia Haragan and Julian Campbell have all made significant contributions to our botanical knowledge of this region.

Two centuries ago, in 1819, Dr. Henry McMurtrie published Sketches of Louisville and its Environs, Including Among a Great Variety of Miscellaneous Matters: a Florula Louisvillensis or a Catalog of Nearly 400 Genera and 600 Species of Plants That Grow in the Vicinity of the Town, Exhibiting Their Generic, Specific, and English vulgar names. 

The title, incredibly long as was often the case with many 19th century gentleman's publications, sums up the contents of the list rather completely.

There are flaws and misidentifications, omitted plants not yet discovered and absent from the list, but Florula Louisvillensis provides great insight into the state of the flora as it was early into the settlement of the town. The phrase "In the Vicinity of the Town" leaves much to be desired and we see the author takes fairly frequent liberties, including species outside their natural range, often from southern Illinois, Ohio, or Western Pennsylvania. In other scenarios plants have lost much ground as in Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum) which grew on the banks of the Ohio according to a Charles Wilkins Short specimen.

There are many vegetables, herbs, agricultural crops, and early European weeds listed in addition to a plush list of native forbs, grasses, and aquatic plants.

The earliest crops being grown in Louisville included corn, soybeans, buckwheat, wheat, hemp, hops, tobacco, and jute, while vegetable gardens contained a combination of native and European vegetables such as North American natives: potatoes, squash, pumpkins, peppers, Jerusalem artichokes, and tomatoes. Louisville's earliest introduced vegetables included asparagus, parsnip, okra, kidney and lima beans, sweet potato, garlic, shallots, horseradish, cabbage, mustard, eggplants, beets, radishes, turnips, cucumbers, garden strawberries, watermelons, and spinach.

Now completely absent from the city, were the wild strawberries (Fragaria virginica) that graced lawns, which have since been completely supplanted by false Indian strawberry (Potentilla indica syn. Duchesnea indica) which would not have been in Louisville until much later. Where we now grow leeks, wild ramps would have once grown in abundance in some of our rich woods (Allium tricoccum) -[not listed in Florula]. 

We now fill out our farmer's markets with novel exotic vegetables such as arugula, kohlrabi, Siberian kale, canteloupes, peanuts, broccoli, zucchini, leeks, figs.

European herbs such as basil, fennel, rosemary, oregano, marjorum, thyme, carrots, celery, parsley, yarrow, Roman chamomile, mayweed, lavender, catnip, sheep sorrel, and mugwort were mentioned in Florula Louisvillensis.

The orchards of the early 1800s contained introduced apple, peach, and pear trees, red raspberries, and native blackberries, dewberries, currants and black raspberries. Early 19th century Louisville also contained native wild fruit and nut trees such as pawpaws, persimmon, black huckleberries (Gaylussacia baccata syn. Vaccinium resinosum), hickories (Carya spp. syn. Juglans spp.), butternuts, hazelnuts, and black walnuts.

Medicinal European plants included Castor beans (Ricinus communis), common burdock (Arctium minus) and common mullein (Verbascum thapsus). When C.S. Rafinesque published Medical Flora: Or, Manual of the Medical Botany of the United States, fully 77% of the plants listed were native to North America, according to Ronald Stuckey a famous Charles W. Short researcher. Dr. C. W. Short was known for his time teaching early American medical botany at Transylvania University, later moving to Louisville and playing a key role in the founding of the medical academy that would become the University of Louisville.

The earliest Kentucky forage grasses were barley, spring rye, oats, Timothy, perennial rye, and the native grasses, Virginia rye, woodland bluegrass (Poa), switchgrass, and Kentucky's native bamboo, giant river cane (listed in duplicate as both Miegia arundinaria, and Arundo gigantea) now identified as Arundinaria gigantea, which merges both names.

Prairie grass enthusiasts find Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans syn. Andropogon nutans, L.), feather grass (Stipa virginiana), Bluejoint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis), Broom sedge (Andropogon virginicus), eastern gama grass (Tripsacum dactyloides), Canary grass, Phalaris Grass (Phalaris arundinacea). However, notably absent were Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Americna beak grass (Diarrhena americana), dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepsis), and river oats (Chasmanthium latifolium). Early perennial year round grazing patterns may have put a lot of pressure on certain grassland species in the days soon after the disappearance of the migratory buffalo. It's known that cattle prefer river cane, which is high in crude protein and relatively low in fat, and will eat all of it until they have depleted what they can reach. 

I speculate that many plants poisonous to grazing cattle, sheep, and goats might have disappeared quickly once their toxicity was known due to agricultural eradication attempts that may have included false indigo (Baptisia spp.) -[not listed], and Wild Lupines (Lupinus perennis) and white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) which did make the list. This would help explain why white snakeroot was not listed as abundant growing in woods of Cherokee Park in 1941 by Slack, but it now abundant.

Wetland plants of this list have been largely devastated by the 20th century draining of the Wet Woods to install the drainage canals throughout Fairdale and Auburndale to the southwest of Louisville. Certain ponds, lakes, and marshes contain disjunct populations of some of these species which are all but gone otherwise: sweet flag (Acorus calamus), Pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata), Steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa), the now extinct Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), swamp lousewort (Pedicularis lanceolata), swamp speedwell (Veronica scutellaria), bog violet (Viola lanceolata), Bladderwort (Utricularia macrorhiza), Willow herb (Decodon verticillatus), Illinois pondweed (Potamogeton illinoensis)- [being herbicided in FINS properties to make fishable], Twisting screwstem (Bartonia paniculata syn. Centaurella paniculata), and Swamp tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), Arrow arum (Arum virginicum), and Marsh St. John's wort (Triadenum virginicum), Virginia willow (Itea virginica).

Some notably missing forbs from this list, now rare, endangered, or extinct include Big leaved scurf pea (Orbexilum macrophyllum), Short's Goldenrod (Solidago shortii), Running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum), Kentucky glade cress (Leavenworthia exigua var. laciniata), the rare saprophytic Crested Coral Root Orchid (Hexalectris spicata), Indian turnip (Medeola virginiana), Green dragon (Arisaema dracontium). Even the common wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) was absent the list.

Some surprising species listed in Florula Louisvillensis include Golden club (Orontium aquaticum), Skunk cabbage (Symplocos foetidus), Trailing arbutus (Epiegaea repens), partridge berry (Mitchella repens), spotted wintergreen (Chimaphilus maculata), Great rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum), High bush cranberry (Viburnum macrocarpon syn Vaccinium macrocarpa), Indian paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea syn. Bartsia coccinea),  Fairywand (Chamaelirium luteum syn. Veratrum luteum), Green False Hellebore (Veratrum viride), Eastern featherbells (Stenanthium gramineum syn. Veraterum angustifolium), Leather leaf (Myrica asplenifolia),  and the endangered American barberry (Berberis canadensis).

Other rare species that do no occur in the Outer Bluegrass Region, but instead the Knobs and Scottsburg Lowland are Virginia Tephrosia/ Goat's beard (Tephrosia virginiana syn. Galega virginiana), Meadow beauty (Rhexia virginiana), Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), Wyandotte beauty (Synandra hispidula). As close as Harrison counties, one can find American columbo (Frasera verticillata), and Canada hemlock (Tsuga canadensis syn. Pinus abies), growing near Hemlock Cliffs.  

The earliest traces of European and Eurasian weeds in 1819 Louisville, KY included Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale syn, Leontice), Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota), Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), roadside pennycress (Thlaspi alliaceum), common field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), Teasel (Dipsacus sylvestris), perennial sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus), hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), speedwells (incl. Veronica agrestis), English plantain (Plantago lanceolata), red and Dutch white clovers (Trifoliums), stinkgrass (Eragrostis cilianensis syn. Briza eragrostis) . To this day, they each can be easily found in dense populations almost anywhere in the city.  Indian heliotrope (Heliotropum indicum), is an exception, growing along the Ohio River but not seen elsewhere. Forget me not (Myosotis scirpioides) tends to occur only on clean water streams such as Goose Creek.

The flora of 1819 contained no traces of modern invasive species. These would come in successive denturies, and include 1980s garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), 1950s, Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense), 1900s Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), Princess Tree (Paulownia tomentosa), Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), 2000's Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna), Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidata), 1940s Kudzu (Pueraria montana), Porcelain berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata), Chicory (Cichorium intybus), Asian bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), pre-1940s Japanese honeysuckle vine (Lonicera japonica), Crown vetch (Segurigera varia), 1940s Autumn olive (Eleagnus umbellata), Clematis (Clematis ternifolia), Shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris syn. Thapsia trifoliata), or Musk thistle (Carduus nutans).

There had already been the introduction of the hedgerow shrub species Privet (Ligustrum vulgaris) which is quite invasive in modern day Louisville. It appears most of what is here is Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) though English privet persists wherever it was once a hedgerow or shrub. Some less aggressive ornamental European additions to the landscape of 1819 included European Larch, European St. John's Wort, Quince bush, Lilac, and European hawthorn.

A couple questionable and elusive orchids appear on the list: although the Three Birds Orchid (Triphora trianthosphora syn. Arethusa pendula) was collected in Jefferson Memorial Forest, and the Dragon's Mouth orchid (Arethusa bulbosa) which doubtfully ever occurred in Louisville or Kentucky. Fringed orange prairie orchid (Platanthera ciliaris) does not occur close to Jefferson County, however other species in this genus Platantera, including fringeless purple prairie orchid (P. peramoena), and (P. lacera) and green fringed orchid which can be found near the original Mann's Lick site in Fairdale. This site unfortunately is subject to commercial development and is not expected to preserve these rare orchids, which has been the fate of most every wetland in Louisville once developers got a notion to drain and destroy them.

Yellow lady slipper orchid was omitted from the list, but not Adam and Eve's orchid (Aplectrum hyemale), Crane fly orchid (Tipularia discolor). As described above, 

Additionally some milkworts (Polygala spp.) were listed, which did really occur here but are very rare. For instance purple milkwort (Polygala sanguinea) seems to prefer sunny drainage ditches within the old Wet Woods swamp that spans from Prestonia and Okolona to Fairdale and Auburndale.

In place of our invasive 21st century honeysuckle one would have found orange trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens syn. Lonicera virginiana), which has been nearly driven locally extinct, now only known to occur wild in Iroquois Park. Red coral honeysuckle/ trumpet honeysuckles also occurs nearby but is very difficult to find growing wild. (Lonicera sempervirens).

Where we would now find Oriental bittersweet vine, once Wax work grew (Celastrus scandens), which now only grows well in southern Jefferson, north Bullitt Counties, and Meade Counties, locally speaking.

The northeastern shrub Pinebarren goldheather (Hudsonia ericoides) was a waif, if it ever really grew in Louisville but found its way onto Frederick Law Olmsted's list of Woody Plants of Kentucky planted in Cherokee Park by virtue of its appearance on McMurtrie's list. The same was the case for American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) which has not been recorded growing native and wild in Kentucky except in Lyons County. 

Several Andromeda (reclassified as Eubotrys -dog hobble - or Fetterbush (Lyonia) also found their way into Olmsted's arboretum style design for Cherokee Park. Many of the Ericaceous (Heath family) shrubs listed by McMurtrie were also unsuccessfully attempted in plantings by Olmsted on Cherokee Park's limestone soils, though probably occurred in Knobs, such as Iroquois Park, Waverly Park and Jefferson Memorial Forest. The exotic buttercup--devil in the bush (Nigella damascena), is not found in Kentucky in modern times, but may have appeared here in the 19th century. 

http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=NIDA

Some plants now long missing from Louisville, listed by McMurtrie include American chestnut (Castanea americana), American chinquapin (Castanea pumila), Virginia bunchflower (Veratrum virginicum), White Gentian (Gentiana alba), Atamasco lily (Zepharanthes atamasco), Canada lily (Lilium canadense), Woodland pinkroot (Spigelia marilandica), Canadian Yew (Taxus canadensis), Lupine (Lupinus perennis), and wood lily (Lilium philadelphicus). 

Others from Florula Louisvillensis which have become exceedingly rare include American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), Big toothed Aspen (Populus grandidentata) misidentified as quaking Aspen.

Not only did McMurtrie's list include vascular plants, but also a list of fungi and mosses and lichens growing in the vicinity of Louisville. The list was rather limited and crude, but still it mentioned six species of Boletus, Agaricus mushrooms limited to two genera. Mosses included six genera: Brium, Fontanalis, Hypnum, Mnium, Phascum, and Sphagnum. Over the last two centuries, many discoveries have been made in this field including Morels (Morchella), Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus),

The full list can be viewed at http://books.google.com/books/about/Sketches_of_Louisville_and_Its_Environs.html?id=ySAmAAAAMAAJ beginning at page 211.

Then in 1941, a master's thesis was published by a Louisville, KY schoolteacher named Mabel Slack for Cornell University under Dr. Wiegand, which exhibited the flora of Cherokee Park (located in the Highlands neighborhood). The floral inventory showcased the surviving flora of the park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who was heavily informed of the local flora by C.S. Rafinesque's list allegedly plagiarized by McMurtrie for the Florula Louisvillensis according to Mabel Slack.