Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PH-LC 32 |
Object Name |
Specimen |
Title |
Astragalus canadensis |
Other Name |
Canada Milk-Vetch |
Collector |
Meriwether Lewis & William Clark |
Date |
1804 |
Description |
The Lewis specimen was collected along the Big Bend of the Missouri River in Lyman Co., South Dakota, on 21 Sep 1804 (Moulton, 1987a: 96-99). The correct name for this taxon may be Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (Nutt.) G. L. Nesom (in Phytologia 77: 287. 1994). (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 the expedition team moved through South Dakota along the Big Bend of the Missouri River, Merriwether Lewis collected this specimen of Astragalus canadensis, Canadian milkvetch. This plant can be found across central and western America and Canada and its roots were historically used as food and medicine for a wide variety of ailments. |
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 |