Native Collection

Kentucky ranks right up there as one of the most biodiverse states in our country. From the Appalachian Mountains in the East down to the Mississippi River in the West, the thousands of plants native to inside our borders is mind boggling. But what is native to the banks of the Mississippi in the West may not be found in the mountains. There won't be any Eastern Hemlocks or Mountain Laurels seen in Western KY. There is quite the dilemma created by labeling things "native" simply because they reside within man-made political lines on a map. Kentucky is in a unique geographic predicament as it sits squarely between the Southeast and Midwest. When it comes to those plants we consider part of our Native Collection, we resort to defining natives as: Any plant known to have a historic range that includes any portion of Kentucky or other parts of the Eastern U.S, so long as the plant's USDA hardiness zone includes 6b-7b (The USDA Hardiness range of KY). We encourage you to further investigate what it is to be native, what very small or very large range some plants have, and how these plants interact with our local ecosystem.  Part of this investigation can come from our Executive Director, Paul Cappiello's 3-part series that appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal.  Below are the links to the three articles.

Part 1. "What's the difference between native and exotic plants?........."

Part 2.  "What's the difference between these 3 types of native plants........."