Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PH-LC 115 |
Object Name |
Specimen |
Title |
Juniperus horizontalis |
Other Name |
Creeping Juniper |
Collector |
Meriwether Lewis & William Clark |
Date |
1804 |
Description |
The type was collected along the banks of the Missouri River near Little Beaver Creek, Emmons Co., North Dakota, on 16 Oct 1804 (Moulton, 1987a: 470). However, Pursh gives the distribution as "Within the Rocky-mountains." As the label repeats the same line Pursh published regarding the height of the species ("never more than 6 inches high") we find it curious he placed the species in the mountains rather than on the plains along the Missouri River (The Lewis & Clark Herbarium Digital Imagery Study Set, ANSP, 2002) On deposit at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia |
Label |
Starting in 1803, Merriwether Lewis (APS 1803) and William Clark embarked on a 3 year expedition along the Missouri and Columbia rivers to the Pacific Coast. They collected hundreds of plant specimens to carry back to the East Coast. They pressed these plants, attached them to sheets of paper and wrapped them in oilskin to survive the long journey intact. As Lewis and Clark traveled along the banks of the Missouri River in North Dakota, they collected this specimen of Juniperus horizontalis, commonly called Creeping Juniper, on October 16th, 1804. While found frequently in present day Canada, this plant is only found in small pockets along the northern United States. Indigenous communities in this part of the Great Plains used the plant’s wood and bark to build furniture and houses and occasionally used the leaves for tea. |
Credit line |
American Philosophical Society. Gift of Thomas Jefferson, 1805 - 1806. |
Search Terms |
19th century botany Clark herbarium Lewis nineteenth century plant specimen |
Collection |
The Lewis & Clark Herbarium |