Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PH-LC 116 |
Object Name |
Specimen |
Title |
Juniperus sabina |
Other Name |
Dwarf Cedar |
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 sabina, commonly called Savin Juniper, on October 16th, 1804. This variety of juniper is not native to the United States, originating instead from the mountainous regions of Europe. Given this, as well as the Savin Juniper’s toxicity, there are few documented uses of it among indigenous communities in the United States. |
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 |