| Flowers
from the Lewis & Clark Expedition
Clarkia,
Ragged Robin, Elkhorn Flower Clarkia
pulchella [L&C, 1806] Pink to
lavender. Annual to (1820s)
Seeds,
$2.25 packet
Lewis’ Prairie Flax Linum perenne lewisii
[L&C, 1806] Clear blue.
Perennial Zones 5-8 (1820s)
Seeds,
$2.25 packet
Perennial Blanket Flower Gaillardia aristata
[L&C, 1806]
Yellow petals, often tinged red at base; reddish-orange center.
Summer-frost. Perennial Zones 3-8 (1820s)
Seeds,
$2.25 packet
Large Monkey Flower Mimulus guttatus
[L&C, 1806]
Large yellow blossoms tinged red at throat. Perennial or Zones
6-9
Seeds,
$2.25 packet
Western Jacob’s Ladder Polemonium pulcherrimum
[L&C, 1806]
Similar to the Eurasian Jacob’s Ladder with showy, bell-shaped,
purple-blue flowers in spring. 12". Perennial to Zones 4-8
Seeds,
$2.25 packet
Plants, $5 each. Spring Delivery
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Some plants with ornamental potential were distributed and entered the
nursery trade early on, such as Lewis's prairie flax (Linum perenne
lewisii), which McMahon was offering by 1815. Other showy flowers
like the annual and perennial blanket flowers (Gaillardia sp.)
were familiar asters that soon emerged as garden favorites. But, widespread
production and marketing of the Lewis and Clark plants occurred gradually
over time and, in some cases, it required that the plants be "rediscovered"
by other intrepid explorers with more influential connections.
One such naturalist was a journeyman printer from Liverpool, England,
Thomas Nuttall, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1808 at the age of 22.
His interest in books and plants soon led him to Professor Benjamin
Smith Barton of the University of Pennsylvania, who became his friend,
tutor, and patron. Barton also saw in Nuttall someone capable of re-collecting
many of the Lewis and Clark specimens no longer in his possession. In
1811 Nuttall joined the Astorian Expedition, which was planned to follow
the Lewis and Clark Expedition's path to the Pacific. Nuttall headquartered
at Fort Mandan and made numerous excursions up the Missouri River, where
he encountered many of the original Lewis and Clark species. He was
able to send a large shipment to Barton and returned to England just
before the outbreak of the War of 1812. The plants and seeds he took
with him were distributed to the Liverpool Botanic Garden and marketed
through a dealer in American plants. Nuttall's shipment included the
camas (Camassia quamash), or quamash as it was known to the
Nez Perces, which was first collected by Lewis and Clark June 11, 1806
in Idaho as the explorersfollowed the Lolo Trail. Like the Native Americans,
the men of the Expedition relied on the root for sustenance and Frederick
Pursh would later note that the plant was "an agreeable food to Governor
Lewis's party." An illustration of this attractive lily, first published
in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1813, as Scilla esculenta,
was made from Nuttall's specimens that were being sold through John
Fraser's Nursery in Sloane Square, London. Eventually, many plants collected
by Nuttall also were offered for sale at the Linnaean Botanic Garden
in Flushing, Long Island, New York.
| 
Perennial Blanket Flower
Gaillardia
aristata
|
The Scottish gardener David Douglas was another significant plant explorer
who followed a similar track westward. He had served on the staff of the
Glasgow Botanic Garden before becoming the foremost plant hunter of the
Royal Botanical Society. Unlike the strict pioneer botanists, Douglas
was more skilled as a horticulturist. He first went to Oregon Country
in 1825 and explored the upper reaches of the Columbia River and parts
of the Canadian wilderness. His western travels crossed and crisscrossed
the route that Lewis and Clark had taken 20 years before. In 1827 he returned
to London with seeds of dozens of distinct species previously known only
to botanists, making available to everyone many now-familiar garden plants
including California poppy, elegant Clarkia, musk or monkey flower, and
blue-pod lupines. Douglas found Gaillardia aristata, first collected
by Lewis in the dry hills of the Rocky Mountains, in similar regions from
the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. Intermixed with the typical species,
Douglas saw many with a dwarf habit no more than 10 to 12 inches in height.
Seeds of this form were collected in abundance and liberally distributed
through the Horticultural Society at Kew. Douglas also brought choice
North American woody shrubs to gardeners around the world, such as the
evergreen Oregon grape-holly (Mahonia aquifolium, honoring Bernard
McMahon) and the flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum). Before
his untimely death in Hawaii in 1834, when he fell into a pit trap and
was gored by a similarly ensnared bull, Douglas had sent some 500 species
to William Hooker at Kew Gardens.
Lewis
& Clark Flower Sampler
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led an epic exploration of
the North American continent from 1803-1806, during which time
they collect hundreds of botanical specimens. This special sampler
includes flowers suitable for any garden. Packet includes: Lewis’
Prairie Flax, Clarkia, Blanket Flower, Snow-on-the- Mountain,
and Western Jacob’s Ladder. $10 |
Often, these western North American species fared better in England that
they did in the eastern United States. The elegant clarkia or "elkhorn
flower," named for Captain William Clark by the German botanist Frederick
Pursh, became widely popular in 19th-century British gardens. Accounts
of London exhibitions in which clarkias received first-class certificates
appeared in American magazines of the 1860s. After traveling to Britain,
James Vick of Rochester, New York wrote enviously of "immense fields ablaze
with bright colors, acres each of pink, red, white, purple, lilac," which
he encountered in a country village of Essex. Although, like most seeds
men, he offered a broad selection of both single and double cultivars,
he readily admitted, "The Clarkia is the most effective annual in the
hands of the English florist. It suffers with us in hot dry weather."
In hot, humid climates, clarkia has been found to perform best when sown
in the fall so that it blooms as the season cools.
| 
Snow-on-the-Mountain
Euphorbia marginata
|
Snow-on-the-mountain, Euphorbia marginata, which was new to science
when collected by Lewis and Clark in 1806, soon became a common annual
in 19th-century seed catalogues. Although its natural distribution is
along the west side of the Missouri River in North Dakota, it proved adaptable
to a wide range of soil types and growing conditions and likely escaped
from cultivation into farmlands from Minnesota to Texas and New Mexico.
Still other adaptable western species like the Western Jacob's ladder
(Polemonium pulcherrimum) and even Lewis's prairie flax, the
North American subspecies of the common European blue flax, never managed
to captivate American nurserymen, even though they grow with equal vigor
and beauty. Catalogues generally offered only the traditional garden-variety
counterparts, probably because it was easier to acquire these perennials
from seed sources abroad.
Camas
Camassia quamash
[L&C, 1806]
Tall spikes of starry,
dark bluish-purple flowers
in late spring to early
summer. Bulb used as
food by Native Indians.
12"-16" Full sun or part shade, Zones 3-8.
Fall Delivery.
$5.50 for ten Camas |
Present-day ecological concerns must temper our rush to obtain certain
species, especially those threatened by over-zealous collectors. The prairie
coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia), for example, has a long
history of medicinal use by Native Indians but now our modern-day infatuation
with herbal remedies has led to its near devastation by widespread digging
of wild plants.
The concepts of endangered species, diminution of resources, environmental
degradation, even extinction were not part of the mindset of that moment
in our history two hundred years ago. It was still a time to document
and collect, to observe and understand. As Jefferson predicted in 1804,
on the eve of the venture, "We shall delineate with correctness the
great arteries of this great country: those who come after us will fill
up the canvas we begin."
Now, we can reflect upon the pristine landscape stretching out beyond
the horizon that was viewed with awe and wonder by the men of the Corps
of Discovery. While we know they endured near starvation and exhaustion,
sickness, scorching heat, arduous winters, monumental hardships, and
profound uncertainty about the road ahead, we can still envy their experiences
and take pleasure in their discoveries just as certainly as did Jefferson,
who never traveled beyond the mountains of Virginia. Jefferson's destiny
was to remain behind and wait with excited anticipation for the seeds,
plants and roots the corps would return. In the ensuing years he would
pursue the study of this new and sometimes peculiar flora from western
lands, content in the belief that "Nature intended me for the tranquil
pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight."
Peggy Cornett, Director
Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants
January 2003
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