It was a dark and stormy night...

...but it started out as a sunny steamy summer day - the hazy hot and humid kind that the Ohio River valley region is well known for.

The parks system I work for has several large impactful projects underway in one of our largest parks - a sewer line installation, a new two mile road, and a new segment of our county-wide shared use bike/ped path.

Each of these projects will traverse park property which has been heretofore relatively undisturbed - having been mostly farmland in the past prior to being purchased for the park in the 1950s. Those sixty intervening years have allowed a lot of regeneration of the native plant communities on this property.

Our project team spent the day today walking the proposed alignment of the new road, as well as the proposed alignment of the new shared use path. Here are images of some of the wonderful plants doing their thing in southern Jefferson County, KY. I know what some of these are; others are plants I know not at all. Pitch in with identifications as you see fit.

I think this is a Ratibida...

Here is a relatively small plant with pink flowers I've never seen before. I think I have more images of a bigger more floriferous one later, but I'll post these first.

Here's another one that I should probably recognize, but I don't...

You know you wanted some woodies...

Here is a very happy mass of Rhus copallina - Shining or Winged Sumac.

I expect that this little fellow is a Rudbeckia of some sort, but it seemed so all alone...

I think that this is a healthy patch of Groundcedar - Lycopodium sp.

Back out in a sunny field, here are several residents thereof. This one is Butterfly Milkweed - Asclepias tuberosa.

Here is that pink flower again (I think) that I posted above.

I'm pretty sure this one is a Ruellia sp. - Wild Petunia - getting along swimmingly in a closely mown utility corridor.

And who can't get excited by some healthy patches of Dodder (Cuscuta sp.)?

Finally - for tonight - here was a bunch of this viney varmint running all along the edge of a meadow area.

This is one happy Passionvine...Passiflora incarnata.

That was fun!
I agree with all your IDs and all your unknowns, ie I don't know any of those either.
I did not find the pink one in here, I don't think , but it has lots of pretty pictures- you must know about this but others might like to see it
http://www.louisvilleky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/034D7B52-DA05-4FB1-BA52-C3DF417251DC/0/SRAG200PocketfieldguideKywildflowers.pdf

google image search to the rescue
http://uswildflowers.com/detail.php?SName=Sabatia%20angularis

That's a new one to me:

Rose Pink, Bitterbloom, Square-stemmed Sabbatia, Rose Gentian - Sabatia angularis


Thanks, Sally!

I was worn out from the several mile hike through the park woodlands in the lovely 90F+ temperatures, with 100% humidity dressing.

Here are some more of the delicacies found whilst traipsing around...

I know this one - but I don't remember its name. It was being discussed somewhere on a thread around here - again, with no recollection of where the DG heck it was.

Ha! Seduced you into seeing another woody plant...

These are a couple flavors of one of the local Hibiscus species, maybe Hibiscus moscheutos.

Of course, there are Typha sp. (Cattails) all around the lake.

And last but certainly not least, there were patches of Bee Balm all about (Monarda sp.) hosting their eponymous allies...

Ha! Found the big yellow one in the post above at 9:37 p.m. I'll save the identity, lest anyone be inclined to want to ID it on their own.

And I remembered where it had been discussed - at least where I remember it. It was on a wild woodland walk last month in my native Jessamine County, KY - in the Marble Creek ravine area along the Kentucky River palisades.

It wasn't in bloom yet, but it was rambunctious in areas where it was happy.

8:39 pm, could that be Nyssa sylvatica?
(If so, is it NISS ah or Nice ah?)

Ah, the siren's seductive song sways sallyg...

Not Nyssa - nicht nice.

So you have rose pinks. Texas has just plain Pinks. Phlox type with no smell. Ruellia yes, native down here too. Have seen the horse mint (monarda citrdora ¿sp? ) this year, missed your monarda. Your tuberosa is a lighter color than expected. Yellow flowers I see, but the helianthus are the ones I recognize best. Then the golden crownbeard(Texas Cowpen Daisy) o rudbeckias get shorted as everyone thinks they all have aster yellows virus if they arent purple.. sally got the ones best tho. I can imagine being worn down from from that trek!

The first two photos that you thought might be Ratibida looks like Echinacea paradoxa - yellow-flowered purple coneflower. Photos 3 & 4 might be Ratibida.

This message was edited Aug 4, 2014 5:45 PM

Thanks, pollengarden - now you just have to decide which species you really think it is.

All four photos were of the same plant.

Well, that is embarrassing. Lets go with Ratibida pinnata. Sorry, I am familiar with Ratibida columnifera which doesn't look like that.

No need to be embarrassed! I'm a fish on a bicycle when it comes to herbaceous plants.

Give me a tree/shrub/vine every time...

You DONT have asclepias tuberosa, cant see in my old age, but tuberosa leaf is different, color different. That is probably curassavica, cant see the lanceolata well enuff to compare. Unless you know something I dont VV

As I've said - herbaceous critters are not my strong suit, but I'm also unaware of any other native milkweed found around central KY with orange/yellow flowers other than Asclepias tuberosa. They are supposed to be variable from all orange to orange/yellow - which is what those images look like.

As far as foliage goes, I don't have a good frame of reference to consider. I didn't walk out into field to get good closeups of that plant, since it is/was high tick season and I don't need more than I attract already.

Next time at this site, I'll try to capture some additional images of plants that are closer to mown ground, and see what everyone thinks then.

Pic has typical mw leaves, tuberosa doesnt tho. I have spotted swamp mw (incarnata) in Ky occasionally as well as syriaca. I also need better descriptors than this cellphone provides, but am not ready to replace my dead laptop as yet, and the library isnt in my list of priorities for this trip home. Send the pix on, or maybe a couple others will step in and help me see better???... Chuckl. nite guys

If you google images of Asclepias tuberosa you will find both foliage and flower color that match the non-mystery plants in VV's photos. https://www.google.com/search?q=asclepias+incarnata&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=NhTiU4TtLcSryAS2_IHAAQ&ved=0CK0BEIke&biw=1600&bih=808#q=asclepias+tuberosa&tbm=isch&imgdii=_

Kk- I see the tuberosa in the leaves and flora this mornin. I cave,