Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PH-LC 34b |
Object Name |
Specimen |
Title |
Atriplex gardneri |
Other Name |
Moundscale |
Collector |
Meriwether Lewis & William Clark |
Date |
1806 |
Description |
The sheet is a mixture of Atriplex canescens (right hand specimen) and A. gardneri (left and middle specimens)...These specimens [atriplex gardineri], unlike the mixed collection just mentioned under Atriplex canescens, were collected on 20 Jul 1806 in Montana. On that date Lewis found Sarcobatus vermiculatus on the river bottom along the Marias River in Toole Co. (Moulton, 1993: 118-120). We suspect he got A. gardneri at the same time although here the location information is given simply as "the high plains of Missouri." It is less likely that Clark would have collected the plant. In adopting A. gardneri over A. nuttallii, we are following Stutz and Sanderson (1998). The right hand specimen on PH-LC 34 is A. canescens (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. In July of 1806, when the expedition team was in Montana traveling along the Marias River tributary of the Missouri River, Merriwether Lewis collected the specimen on the left of this sheet- Atriplex gardneri (Gardner's Saltbush)- which he added to the specimen of Atriplex canescens (Fourwing Saltbush) collected a few years prior. This plant can be found across Western North American from British Columbia through southern California. |
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 |