Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PH-LC 34a |
Object Name |
Specimen |
Title |
Atriplex canescens |
Other Name |
Four-Wing Saltbush |
Collector |
Meriwether Lewis & William Clark |
Date |
1804 |
Description |
The sheet is a mixture of Atriplex canescens (right hand specimen) and A. gardneri (left and middle specimens). The earlier designation by Cutright (1969: 404) of the entire sheet as the type therefore is rejected. The type was collected along the Big Bend of the Missouri River in Lyman Co., South Dakota, on 21 Sep 1804 (Moulton, 1987a: 96-99). There is a small portion of an original Lewis label that gives only the date. It is assumed that the collection was mixed to begin with and not subsequently confused. Pursh reports that "Goats delight to feed upon this shrub" not realizing that "Goats" in this case refers to the pronghorn of the American West. (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. The specimen that Merriwether Lewis collected along the Big Bend of the Missouri River in South Dakota, on 21 Sep 1804 belongs to the Fourwing Saltbush, otherwise known as Atriplex canescens and later added fragments of Atriplex gardneri, Gardner's Saltbush. The Fourwing Saltbush on the right of the page is an evergreen shrub is native to the Western and Plains regions of the United States. While it was used extensively by indigenous communities in southwestern America, its historical use in the Great Plains region is less discernable. |
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 |