A new species of beaksedge, a grass-like plant found in wet areas, was recently described by Claire M. Ciafré and her co-author Robert F. C. Naczi. This new beaksedge has been found in only seven locations in the entire world – all of which are in the southeastern U.S.

It can be hard to imagine over 3.5 million acres of grasslands stretching in a horseshoe shape from what is now the Land Between the Lakes area of Kentucky and Tennessee east to the Mammoth Cave area of Kentucky. Yet, much of that area was once a mixture of tallgrass prairie, oak savannas, and depressional wet meadows. We know this from a combination of historical records and by looking at the types of plants and animals that can be found there.

The August 1, 2022 SGI newsletter featured a note about our field botany team discovering a “new” population of the rare Menges’ fameflower (Phemeranthus mengesii) in a rock outcrop grassland remnant in the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee.

That got me thinking about all the cool plants in that genus, and about drought adapted plants of glades and other rock outcrop grasslands in general. And now that we’re in the hottest part of the year, these seemed like good topics for a blog post.

An exciting new bill in the conservation world has been introduced to Congress – the North American Grasslands Conservation Act of 2022. So, what does that have to do with Tennessee, Kentucky, or anywhere in the eastern U.S.? A lot more than most people may realize.

Summer is always a busy time of the year at SGI with many long days in the field. July has been an especially busy month for us with many of our team members being out in the field with limited connectivity. This month’s newsletter includes just a few of the many exciting activities that our team has been working on during July. We’re also excited to announce that we have a new, full time position open and have just begun taking applications.