Collecting America's Native Plants - Meriwether Lewis "No Regular Botanist"

"Like most people of his day, Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) was knowledgeable about plants. His mother was an herbalist, & as an agriculturist he was interested in plants of economic importance. Thus, when Jefferson assigned Lewis the task of naturalist it was natural that Lewis would focus, as Jefferson instructed him, on medicinal plants, plants of economic value such as corn, wheat, grasses, fodder, & plants that would have been of horticulture interest, as Jefferson had a large garden & was very much interested in horticulture plants.

"For Jefferson, the decision not to send a true naturalist, but rather one that was semi-trained was both fortunate & unfortunate. For the botanical community the fact that Jefferson did not send a naturalist meant that only a few select specimens were collected. Nonetheless, the more than two hundred specimens that reached Philadelphia, from the activities of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, signified the richness of the flora of the Pacific Northwest & particularly the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho & Western Montana.

"Lewis’s collection activities were limited to opportunities when he had a chance to collect. As captain he had many other duties besides looking for new plants. Thus it was, we know from his journals, that not only did he collect, but so did some of the other men. There are even indications that Sacagawea or Saka Kawea collected plants as well.

"Lewis's collecting activities were not described by him, but looking at contemporaries, it is clear that Lewis used a small hand press. This allowed him to collect small samples that he would then dry over a period of days. Because he had no other means of drying these plants other than sunshine he was very careful what he collected. For example; he avoided cactus & all kinds of succulent plants except for two—both sedums, or rock plants. He collected lots of grasses, because they were economically important as food. He collected crop plants that were grown by the native people. And he collected a bountiful number of wildflowers, particularly in 1806 as he crossed the Rocky Mountains.

"Some of the plants that Lewis collected were found along the Lolo Trail in late June of 1806, & then across Lewis & Clark Pass in early July of 1806. Many of those species are represented in his herbarium & may be seen even today along the Lewis & Clark Trail.

"Lewis's tendency was to collect specimens that he could, in a small sample, show all of the detail that he needed to show. Thus, he tended to collected plants in good flower & occasionally, if he felt it was important as a medicinal plant, in fruit, so he could then grow seeds from the plant once he returned the material to Philadelphia.

"Seeds were commonly collected in 1805 particularly along the Columbia River. Very few seeds were collected in 1806 on the return trip. Numerous specimens & seeds were collected as they ascended the Missouri River in 1804.

"Lewis's interest in the wildflowers of what we now call the Rocky Mountains was much as any individual's today. They are abundant & beautiful & easy to collect. The success of his collection resulted in the discovery of three new genera, one named for him, one named for Clark, & another named for the character of the plant. Several new species were collected. And, most that you see surrounding us here today were collected by Lewis & were named from his specimens.

"Lewis's plant press was probably in the form of a book. A very large book, probably twelve by eighteen inches. It may or may not have been bound on the one side. This is a traditional plant press that you find in China. It is made out of bamboo & consists of a flat strong surface that specimens can be placed in. Lewis used paper much like you used as a youngster in kindergarten. A kind of construction paper. It was folded in half & the specimen placed in between. Now, Lewis's paper was twelve by eighteen when folded, this is half that. You'll notice that the paper is absorbent. This way the specimen's moisture would go into the paper, be absorbed by the paper, & then the specimen could be slowly dried. But in drying, everyday Lewis had to open his press, remove the old pages that were damp, lay them in the sunshine, allow them to dry, & move his plants into new paper so they would continue to dry.

"Modern botany is quite different from Lewis's day. We use very large presses & in a good operation you'll run three to five presses, filling each during the course of a day. Each press consists of about room for one hundred different specimens. We are able to dry these very rapidly using what is known as a Holmgren drying frame, by putting a heat source underneath, a coleman stove or electric light bulbs. The heat rises through the corrugates, the holes in the corrugates, & will dry plants overnight, if not during the course of twenty-four hours.

"Today we are in Packer Meadow on the Clearwater National Forest. This was a lunch stop for the Lewis & Clark Expedition in late June of 1806. Very likely, because Lewis had collected so many plants coming up the Lolo Trail, he took time out during that lunch break to work his plant specimens. Lewis would open his press & open up, in his case, each individual page of his press. Coming on to his first specimen he would then take a look at it, make sure that the leaves were flat & that all the diagnostic characters of the flowers were shown so they could be studied. He would repeat this for each specimen &, if necessary, would replace the paper with new paper.

"This is the common camas that Lewis & his men experienced in 1805. Tradition says that Lewis & Clark & his men became ill from eating the bulbs. That's probably not true. More likely the culprit was salmonella poisoning associated with the dried—poorly dried—salmon.

"It's interesting that Lewis collected the Canadian Dogwood or Cornus candadensis. This is a plant he knew well from Virginia. It's interesting to speculate whether he collected it because he knew it, collected it because he wanted to show that something from Virginia also grew in the Rocky Mountains, or what. Maybe he was homesick. The other specimen that I have here is the new genus of mariposa lily collected by Lewis & Clark along the Lolo Trail in Idaho & Montana in late June & early July. This is Calicortis pulcella, or "beautiful mariposa lily".

"Two specimens that Lewis would have handled during the stop in Packer Meadow is a skyrocket, this little high elevation blue flower which occurs near the summit, & also near the summit is this species of menzesia, named for the surgeon naturalist Archibald Menzies who preceded Lewis & Clark in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1790's. Menzies collected only along the coast, & this is one of those species that goes from the coast to the high mountains in the Rockies. Lewis was very judicious in what he collected. He made only small specimens. Even though this is a large shrub he would have collected only a little bit of it. The reason is simple, someone had to carry it to Philadelphia.

"A specimen has three dimensions: odor, good color & a feel of surroundings, not seen on a flattened dried specimen. And yet, all the technical details necessary for identification, the number of petals, sepals, stamens, the condition of the ovary & fruit, the leaves, even the habitat of the plant can be nicely preserved in any specimen. Occasionally if you have a tree or a shrub it is necessary to make notes indicating the size of the tree or the shrub. This Lewis did on occasions, & we now have his original notes to go by.

"This plant has bulbs. They are thick & fleshy. Drying one of those would be very difficult. Thus, Lewis rarely collected any succulent plant & certainly none of the bulbs that would require days, if not years, to dry. In fact, the reason Lewisia rediviva is called Lewisia rediviva is the genus name honors Lewis but the species name, or epithet, rediviva means revived. That's because the specimen that Lewis made at Travelers' Rest July 1, 1806, was still alive when it reached Philadelphia in September of that year. The specimen that Lewis returned to Philadelphia with, that would later be called Lewisia rediviva, was removed from his collection paper & grown in Philadelphia. It was observed for almost a full year before it suddenly died. Very likely, as everyone knows, over watering plants can be dangerous & deadly, & certainly that's the case with Lewisia.

"Meriwether Lewis described his plants in his journals. He had his training from Barton in Philadelphia, but he also had with him two volumes of John Miller's book on Linnaeus's system of botany. One was an illustration of the terminology of the Linnaean system & the other was on the system itself. So what Lewis could do is, he could use these two books & write his descriptions in a very technical way, so botanists who read the journals would be able to have that information.

"As a naturalist, Lewis has been fairly highly regarded by the modern community. He worked under trying & difficult situations. While it is clear that he was only able to devote a portion of his time to the effort, what he did is widely respected. It should be noted however, that in 1811, Thomas Nuttall of England, went up the Missouri River & collected several hundred more specimens than Lewis & Clark did in 1804. In 1834 & 1835 Thomas Nuttall came to the Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Oregon & Washington & collected hundreds of specimens. Many of the plants that Lewis & Clark found, that were not named in Lewis' time were subsequently named by Thomas Nuttall from his own collections."

By James L. Reveal, Professor Emeritus, Botany University of Maryland, Supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Governor's Lewis & Clark Trail Committee

Blooming Today in the Mid-Atlantic - Trailing Arbutus

Article & photos by Capital Naturalist by Alonso Abugattas

Trailing Arbutus is also referred to as Plymouth Mayflower, or just Mayflower. Since it is one of the first plants to bloom, well before May, the name is actually derived from a legend. It is said that the first bloom the pilgrims trying to settle in Plymouth in 1621 saw was this plant, whom they named after their ship. This member of the Heath family (Ericaceae) is also sometimes called Winter Pink, Mountain Pink, Gravel Plant, or Shadflower (supposedly blooming in time with the influx of migrating shad fish).

Although this plant has leathery evergreen leaves, it is best known from its small clusters of 5-petaled white or pink flowers. These often bloom in March through April & are very fragrant. They hold good supplies of nectar, enough to lure bumblebee queens (their primary pollinators) into looking for them even if they are sometimes covered in leaves. If a bumblebee is able to find 2 flowers of different sexes & pollinate them, then a berry-like capsule is formed. The seeds they contain are very attractive to ants who act as the main seed dispersers.

The flowers are said to be edible & quite tasty, but the plant is getting so rare, that to eat them is a shame, & an actual crime in some areas. I've never tried to taste one. But Trailing Arbutus has been used by people for more than just food in the past. The Algonquian Quebec tribes used a leaf infusion to treat kidney ailments. It turns out that the leaves do contain a substance called arbutin that has been used medicinally to treat kidney stones & urinary tract disorders.  The Cherokee also made use of the plant, to treat abdominal pain, induce vomiting, treat diarrhea, indigestion, in addition to kidneys. The Haudenosaunee (sometimes called the Iroquois) thought it could be used for labor pains, rheumatism, kidney issues, & indigestion. For the Potawatomi, it was a sacred tribal flower.

So there's a lot to this little woodland creeper, though it gets harder to find every year. Though sometimes sold commercially, please make sure that it is not collected from the wild. If its is disturbed, the symbiotic fungal relationship is usually broken & the plant soon dies. So please never remove it from the wild. If you are lucky enough to find it, enjoy its beauty & fragrance, it is well deserving of being the floral emblem of Nova Scotia & state flower of Massachusetts.

Blooming Today in the Mid Atlantic - Similar Dicentras

Dutchman's Breeches

Article & photos by Capital Naturalist by Alonso Abugattas

We have 2 local spring wildflowers that are very similar: Dutchman's Breeches Dicentra cucullaria & Squirrel Corn Dicentra canadensis. This makes sense as they are after all in the same genus, the name referring to their flowers having 2 spurs. Both are spring ephemerals (blooming & reproducing before the trees completely leaf out, then going dormant underground). Both have toxic leaves (another name for both is "Lambkill") that protect them from many herbivores. Both are myrmecochorous, having their seeds dispersed by ants. Both are primarily pollinated by long-tongued bees like bumblebees, have white flowers, & very similar leaves. Both like to grow in moist, often riparian woodlands as well. They also have some differences however that are apparent, particularly when they are in flower.

Dutchman's Breeches are the more common of the 2 & they also tend to bloom a week or two earlier. Their most common name comes from the flowers resembling pantaloons hanging out to dry. These plants tend to form small colonies. They usually have two compound leaves per flower stem that are longer than their look-alike cousin..

Squirrel Corn is less commonly seen & tends to bloom a week or 2 later. Their most common name is derived from their yellow clusters of bulblets just below the soil surface. They are also called White Bleeding Hearts, & the heart-like flowers are the most obvious difference between them & Dutchman's Breeches. They also normally have only 1, shorter compound leaf per flower stem.
   
Both these flowers are open right now, their bloom times briefly overlapping this year. Go check out their differences in person. But hurry, or you will have to wait another year before they emerge & flower again.

Squirrel Corn

History Blooms at Monticello - Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla)

Keith Nevison of Monticello tells us that Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) is blooming there today! Named in honor of 3rd U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, this woodland native uncommonly occurs from southern Alabama north to Ontario. Grows best in humusy, well-drained, limestone soils in part to full shade. A dressing of mulch goes a long way towards protecting its roots. Twinleaf can be either self-pollinating or pollinated by insects, mostly halictid bees or honey bees. Its seeds are distributed by ants who feed the fleshy elaisosome surrounding the seed to their larvae.

Blooming Today in the Mid-Atlantic - Spring Beauties

Article & photos by Capital Naturalist by Alonso Abugattas

The appropriately named Virginia Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) are indeed beautiful, if small, spring ephemerals: growing leaves, blooming, & producing seeds before the trees fully leaf out & then disappearing until the next spring. Their scientific name was assigned by Linnaeus himself in honor of John Clayton, one of Virginia's earliest naturalists. They can be quite abundant, blanketing open woodlands so thickly they sometimes look like snow. Carolina Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana) is another species that grows in the mountains West of our region. The plants send up only one grass-like leaf during years they do not flower, two or more otherwise. The flowers themselves close up & point downwards to protect their nectar on overcast days & at night.

More species of insects have been documented visiting Spring Beauties than any other spring ephemeral studied so far. The flowers show much variation & have nectar guides that appeal to many pollinators. Although each individual flower only lasts about a week (producing pollen solely the first day & nectar the remainder of the time so as to help prevent self-pollination), as a species they can bloom for quite a long time, from February through May. This allows more opportunities for different insects to visit as well as rewarding those who do. This includes a native solitary bee, &rena erigeniae which is olgolectic, meaning it requires the pollen from this flower or it can't reproduce. Though it can visit other flowers for nectar, its young need the pollen from this flower to grow. So close is this association that the flowers open only when temperatures & conditions are high enough for the bee (and other early pollinators) to be flying.  Once pollinated, the seeds "explode" as far as two feet before being dispersed by ants. They grow special attachments on their seed coats (called elaisomes) that are attractive to many species of ants in a process known as "myrmecochory."

Spring Beauties are sometimes called "Fairy Spuds." This is due to the small, marble-sized tuber (corm) that forms their roots. These are quite tasty, I must admit, were a favorite food of many indigenous tribes (and modern foragers, raw or cooked) wherever they grew, as were the leaves. Eating the root of course kills the plant however, so it is best to leave them to the numerous insects that need them instead.

Blooming Today in the Mid-Atlantic - Bloodroot

Bloodroot, An Ephemeral With Many Traits 

Article & Photos by Capital Naturalist, Alonso Abugattas

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) goes by a variety of common names due its many different uses & properties: Red Indian Paint, Redroot, Puccoon (Virginia Algonquian Indian for "blood"), Sangdragon, Coonroot, Sweet Slumber (for its narcotic properties), Snakebite (for its bitter taste), Turmeric, Papoose Flower (for the way the emerging leaf wraps around the bud), & Tetterwort (for its use in treating skin disorders, or tetters). It is the only member of its genus Sanguinaria (which again refers to the bloody color of its sap).

Bloodroot is one of the earliest spring ephemeral plants, blooming well before the trees leaf out & then disappearing underground until the following year. The flowers are equally fleeting, with the petals falling off easily in wind or rain, rarely lasting more than a few days at most.  They are lovely, if short lasting, but their attractiveness is a bit shallow. They actually have no nectar to offer pollinators, only pollen, so a few insects are either tricked into pollination, though some others can use the pollen. This, along with their short-lived flowers & their early bloom time when there are few insects out, would be a problem were it not that the flowers can be self pollinating (autogamy). The seeds produced are primarily distributed by ants (this is called Myrmecochory. Some believe that without ants dispersing the seeds, the plant would not be very successful. In fact, experiments run by local botany guru Marion Lobstein, showed that Bloodroot seeds who had their elaisomes removed had a much higher germination rate than those who did not. Since the ants remove the elaisomes in order to feed on them (as well as planting the seeds underground & dispersing them), this helps explain their success.

Among the various human uses for Bloodroot, the most prominent was as a dye. All parts of the plant have a blood-like sap that can be toxic. This colorful plant juice was used by indigenous tribes for dyeing a variety of things, including as a face/body paint. Some even think the term "redskin" may have partially come from this usage by various tribes. It is believed that this toxicity led to its indigenous use as a bug repellent, with insects & ticks thus having to come in contact with the chemicals on their skins before being able to feed. Some people can have an allergic reaction to the toxic sap however. Colonists felt much safer using it to dye wool instead.

The plant's chemical properties made for various medicinal practices as well. It has been utilized especially for blood disorders, menses, during childbirth, & to cause abortions, often due to the belief that its blood-red color somehow signaled these uses (a concept called the Doctrine of Signatures, that a sign was provided on a plant by a higher power as to what the plant could treat). Bloodroot has also been used for rheumatism, as a fever reducer, vomit inducer, cough suppressant, to kill ringworms, rid warts, & to treat fungal infections. The Abnaki people even used it to cause abortions in horses. During the Civil War, Southern doctor Francis Porcher was tasked with finding substitute plants to use for items no longer available due to Northern blockades. The Confederacy listed Bloodroot as part of their ethnobotanical arsenal for many breathing disorders & to induce vomiting, among other applications...

Now a days, few people use Bloodroot for much of anything except to admire its fleeting beauty. In fact, it is easy to overlook except in the early spring when its white flowers make their appearance for the briefest of time. So get out there & enjoy them while they last.

Blooming Today - Along the Trail at Monticello

Virginia Bluebell

Julie Roller, Trail Manager at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, took these photos of native plants on that trail today.

 Chickasaw Plum

Spring Beauty

Trout Lily or Dog-tooth Violet  Recognized by its brown-mottled leaves, this is one of our most common spring ephemeral wildflowers, & it is found in sizable colonies. The common name (Dogtooth Violet) refers to the tooth-like shape of the white underground bulb. The name Trout Lily (a more suitable name since the flower is not a Violet) refers to the similarity between the leaf markings & those of the brown or brook trout. The White Dog-tooth Violet (E. albidum) has narrow, mottled leaves & white, bell-shaped flowers, often tinged with lavender on the outside.

Blooming Today in the Mid-Atlantic - Harbinger-of-Spring or Pepper-and-Salt.

Article & Photos by Capital Naturalist by Alonso Abugattas

One of the earliest of our native native wildflowers to bloom is the tiny spring ephemeral called Harbinger-of-Spring, or Pepper-and-Salt (Erigenia bulbosa). It sometimes blooms as early as February, sending up a small umbel of white flowers with red anthers that soon turn black (and giving the pepper & salt appearance)...This fleeting wildflower is actually in the carrot family & its bulbous minuscule root is edible. The Cherokee also used the plant as a treatment for toothaches. Although it is easy to overlook, it is none-the-less not considered common in most locations, & since eating its root kills the plant, that is strongly discouraged. A certain mining bee, &rena erigeniae, was said to need this plant's pollen in order to reproduce (an oligilectic relationship) & includes the plant's name in its own due to thie perceived relationship, but now many believe that though this bee likes to visit visit its flowers, it actually requires Spring Beauty (Claytonia spp.) pollen in order to reproduce.  Enjoy this early spring wildflower, knowing that it is among the first of many other spring ephemeral flowers soon to appear in our rich, dark, often moist, woods, a true Harbinger of Spring.

Harbinger of Spring is one of the first flowers available to early pollinators like this solitary bee