Plants

 

American Pokeweed grows throughout the park, also known as pokeberry or inkberry. This poisonous plant has deep roots in Appalachian culture.

Photo Credits: Cole Royal

On the Kentucky frontier, knowing how to use the wild growing plants could mean life or death for families living here.

Wild growing plants such as dandelion greens, blackberries, walnuts, pawpaws, and more would have supplemented cultivated crops such as corn, beans, pumpkins, and squash. Frontier families relied on their home gardens to supply them with everything they needed. However, gardens were sometimes not as successful as years before. The weather in Kentucky is unpredictable, and winters and summers alike are often harsh. Having food sources that you can depend on - the native species adapted to this climate - could be what keeps your frontier family alive.

As a National Park, visitors enjoy the plants for their beauty and ornamental purposes. During spring several of the shrubs and smaller trees such as flowering dogwood, eastern redbud, and catawba rhododendron provide splashes of color in the forest understory.

Animals living within the park rely on plants for food and shelter. Many bird species are attracted to the diversity of trees and shrubs providing fruit, such as black cherry, while nut producing trees, such as black walnuts, attract squirrels and white-tailed deer.

Be cautious as you walk through our natural spaces, as they contain poison ivy and poison oak.

 

Kentucky bluebells at Lincoln Boyhood Home at Knob Creek

NPS Photo, JP

Wildflowers grow in abundance throughout the spring and summer months.

Wildflowers, grasses and herbs are important species that grace the open spaces of the fields at Knob Creek and along the pathways of nature trails at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace. From the beginning of the spring to the end of the warm season, wildflowers provide nature with a brilliant display of color.
Bees, butterflies, and ruby-throated hummingbirds feed on the nectar produced by native flowers. Keep your eyes open to catch a glimpse of gray-headed coneflowers, asters and fire pinks.

Walking the hiking trails is a great way to see these flowers!

 

Trees and Shrubs Listing