The plant specimens of Lewis and Clark are finding modern uses at the beginning of their third century following collection.  The type specimens in the collection (~90 species) remain the essential reference for scientists who study the modern flora of the western United States.  These specimens are the ones that Frederick Pursh, Thomas Nuttall, and other scientists referred to when they described them and gave them scientific names in the early 1800s.  Later scientists have changed some of the names as more knowledge accumulated about U.S. plants and botanists determined that the original identifications were wrong.  These kinds of "mistakes" are simply indicative of more comprehensive understanding of the real diversity of plants that Lewis and Clark collected.

Several of the species in the L & C Herbarium were later designated state flowers or grasses.  These include Berberis aquifolium, or Oregon grape (state flower of Oregon), Philadelphus lewisii, or Mock-orange (state flower of Idaho), and Lewisia rediviva, or bitterroot (state flower of Montana).  In addition Agropyron spicatum, or bluebunch wheatgrass, is the state grass of Montana and Washington (and is the proposed state grass of Oregon).

Some plant species that Lewis and Clark found are now widely cultivated, although in many cases, the same species were re-discovered by later botanists and brought into cultivation independently of the expedition collections.  One example of a plant brought into cultivation is the yellow currant (Ribes aureum var. villosum) which was being grown in London gardens as early as 1811.  Dr. James Reveal notes that Lewis sent Jefferson seeds or cutting of Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) in the spring of 1805 and this tree was rapidly introduced into cultivation.  The plant is now widely established throughout much of the United States. Interestingly, Lewis got his material near St. Louis (where it was being cultivated by a Frenchman) who obtained it some "300 miles up the Missouri" where it was cultivated by the Native Americans.  The strong wood of the tree was reportedly good for making bows.

As new technologies emerge, the vegetative material in the specimens may hold clues to past climates.  For example, Dr. Mark Teece of the State University of New York at Syracuse has studied the composition of carbon compounds in several specimens in order to estimate the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air when the plants were growing.  The Lewis and Clark specimens, with their extensive documentation of dates and locations of collection, are the earliest collection of plants from pre-industrial North America.  Teece's studies document further how the past two centuries have witnessed an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, which has been linked to global warming.  He plans further studies of the biochemical composition of plants to reconstruct the climate of this era.

More information on the Lewis and Clark Herbarium

About the Lewis and Clark Herbarium at the Academy of Natural Sciences

Renovations to the L&C Herbarium funded by the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service

Reference Publications on the L&C Herbarium

Whitehouse Reception for Award of Save America's Treasures Grant

Lewis and Clark College Alumni News