Plant
Lewis’s Monkey-flower
Erythranthe lewisii
Photo: Walter Siegmund, CC BY 2.5
Common Names
Purple Monkey-flower
Habitat
Stream banks and wet meadows in mountain valleys
First Observed
1805-08-12
Observed At
Head of Trail Creek, near Lemhi Pass, Beaverhead County, Montana
Lewis collected this striking pink-flowered plant on August 12, 1805, at the headwaters of the Missouri River, near Lemhi Pass on the Continental Divide. Frederick Pursh named the species in Lewis’s honor and included a handsome color illustration in his 1814 Flora Americae Septentrionalis.
Specimen Record
The journals do not describe this plant. It is documented by the herbarium specimen Lewis preserved, whose label places it at the head springs of the Missouri in August 1805 (Lewis and Clark Herbarium, Academy of Natural Sciences).
