Pat Haragan ’s account book signing and lecture at Whitehall House and Gardens on March 26th .
I have dozens of floras sitting on littered bookshelf : from China to the Caucasus and from Kansas to Kentucky . Yet even more mileage is vouch from a new botanic investigating that covers territory closer to home — my neighborhood . I predict the pages of Pat Haragan’s“The Olmsted Parks of Louisville : A Botanical Field Guide”will shortly become click - eared .
But why , you wonder , would such a minute direction on local flora — well-nigh 1990 Akka in five principal Louisville Olmsted Parks ( Cherokee , Seneca , Shawnee , Chickasaw and Iroquois ) — be so important ? It ’s the distinction between knowing and caring for a position from stem turn to stern and taking a seven - day Caribbean cruise . On an ocean cruise , you may have a abbreviated flirtation with Ocho Rios , but by the metre you discern your first flamboyant Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , it will be clip to squeeze off to Cozumel and another Midnight Buffet . For the full measure of a space , you ’ve induce to jump ship and stay awhile — wander around , take short letter and extend a hand lens system . You ’re prosperous if you ’ve got someone like Pat Haragan as your skipper to show you the way .
Pat Haragan’s book signing and lecture at Whitehall House and Gardens on March 26th.
Before her entry into the botanic world , she danced with the Cincinnati Ballet and trained with the New York City Ballet , but a bad knee send her to the sidelines in in high spirits schooltime . While recuperating she spent time weeding in her mother ’s garden . She fell in love with plant . Pat enrolled in the horticulture plan at Ohio State University and found her calling during a local vegetation year . shortly she was knee late in the herbarium under the tuition of her botanical mentor . “ I owe everything to Tod Stuessy , ” she say .
Pat sum vascular botany in the back of her automobile for denotation and wear down a lanyard carrying an essential tool of the trade — a magnifying hand electron lens for close - up review of narrow flowered parts . Sniffing out plant life species requires gift and legwork . Pat is patient and has a shrill eye . She has found plant species much under my nozzle that I did n’t eff develop so close by . Genera with odd names likeIodanthusandScrophulariaare right down the street in Cherokee Park , a stone ’s throw from our Louisville home . Neither of these is probable to set the horticulture world on fire , but it sure is nice to meet the neighbour .
Pat is a field and herbarium botanist . “ Nothing more , ” she modestly assert . “ I wish explore , documenting plants and work in a herbarium . ”
Pat was rent by the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy from 2005 - 2007 to study the flora of Cherokee and Seneca Parks prior to an challenging Woodlands Restoration Project . The Conservancy wanted to see what was there before and after the remotion of invasives — chiefly the bush honeysuckle — that had smothered aboriginal bounce wildflowers and stamp down the sprouting of hickories , oaks and Aesculus hippocastanum . Pat could n’t let go after the two - year undertaking . She proceed on her own for another six years on what became her botanical field guide .
Last August , Pat call excitedly to say that there might be a new Cherokee Park discovery — an rare , native succulentSedum telephoides . For any industrial plant - madden drumbeater , this is like image flecks of Au in the creek . And yet , before you stake your claim , you must scratch your head and wonder : is this genuine ? Or , to borrow from the poem that opens Pat ’s book , is it “ just my desire for drama on a small-scale scale leaf ? ”
pulse of light and shadow ,
Sedum investigation on September 19th.
the patience of waiting out the season
for my present moment of truth
so I can put on this gold boldness .
Pat and Georg Uebelhart stroll through Louisville’s Cherokee Park on April 1st.
Pat and Julian Campbell , a Lexington - based phytologist , line up the Sedums grow on limestone ledges , above Beargrass Creek . They looked very similar toSedum telephium , the female parent of ‘ Herbstfreude ’ ( Autumn Joy ) , one of the most democratic perennial in the world . There were German irises , raise nearby . The Presbyterian Seminary was up the Benny Hill . This made me a little shady that theSedummight be a plant poser — not the native .
Sedum investigation on September 19th .
TheSedums , scatter along the shelf , growing in the wraith of hackberries and a chinquapin oak tree , were n’t in flower . We made several trips in the weeks survey to see how all was progress . The first few bloom were open on September 19th , but it was still knockout to make a last determination .
I bring along stems with leave of absence and a few remain blooms of the garden originSedum telephiumfor comparison . In spite of its glorious name ‘ Autumn Joy , ’ the blooms in Kentucky are nearly faded before autumn begins . It was hard to evidence if the anther were sufficiently red , a telltale sign , that might help with a positive ID for the aboriginal species . Pat needed another week to have another look . Cuttings were transmit to Georg Uebelhart , my Jelitto Perennial Seeds colleague , who said the serrated folio edges looked like the real deal , but this was n’t enough to give it a positive recognition .
By summer ’s end , theSeduminvestigation reach the trail ’s end . Pat and Julian Campbell decided it was not the nativeSedumtelephoidesafter all .
Pat and Georg Uebelhart stroll through Louisville ’s Cherokee Park on April 1st .
This was a minor reverse . The revival meeting of so many species , scarce for twelvemonth , was a Brobdingnagian success . The removal of bush honeysuckle , porcelain berry and wintercreeper open up Cherokee ’s wood to raw ontogenesis . As a result , there are now healthier population of bent trillium , wild hyacinth , red columbine and violet wood sorrel .
Meanwhile , the ragged laciniate orchid appeared in Iroquois .
Some phytologist are lone wolf who prefer the woods or being in the herbarium with oodles of dried , pressed specimen . Pat bask this purdah as well , but she also likes good ship’s company and an Indian Pale Ale . But nothing seems to give Pat pleasance like instruct folks about basic field of force taxonomy .
And we are grateful .
Join Pat on one of her periodicWildflower amble .
Allen Bush is on the Board of Trustees of Louisville ’s Olmsted Parks Conservancy .
