Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PH-LC 30 |
Object Name |
Specimen |
Title |
Aster oblongifolius |
Other Name |
Aromatic Aster |
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. Aster oblongifolius, is the former scientific name for Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, the aromatic aster. As the name suggests, this is a flowering plant that actually blooms in the autumn, and likely would have been in bloom in September 1804, when Lewis and Clark were collecting its specimens along Big Bend of the Missouri River in South Dakota. Historically, a tea made from the plants roots was used to treat fevers. Today, this species is considered rare and at varying levels of endangerment in many parts of the Mountain West and the Midwest. |
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 |