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.
Journal Excerpt
Lewis, August 12, 1805: "At the head spring of the Missouri, at the foot of Portage hill, I observed a very handsome purple flowering plant which I preserved as a specimen."
