The Figwort Family (Scrophulariaceae) was well represented in the collection. They gathered Lewis's Monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii), which is named for Meriwether Lewis, Yellow Monkeyflower (M. guttatus), Wilcox's Beardtongue (Penstemon wilcoxii), Shrubby Penstemon (P. fruticosus), Mountain Kittentails (Synthyris missurica), Thin-leaved Owlclover (Orthocarpus tenufolius), Elephant's Head (Pedicularis groenlandica), and Fern-leaved Lousewort (P. cystopteridifolia).
Legumes included Bessey's Crazyweed (Oxytropis besseyi), Silvery Lupine (Lupinus argenteus), Silky Lupine (L. sericeus), Small-headed Clover (Trifolium microcephalum), and Mountain Goldenpea (Thermopsis montana).
From the Lily Family (Liliaceae) Lewis and Clark gathered such treasures as Glacier Lilies (Erythronium grandiflorum), Yellow Bells (Fritillaria pudica), Cat's Ear Mariposa (Calochortus elegans), Blue Camas (Camassia quamash), Purple Trillium (Trillium petiolatum), Beargrass (Xerophylum tenax), California False Hellebore (Veratrum californicum), and Showy Death Camas (Zigadenus elegans).
And they found a couple of real keepers in Mountain Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium montanum) and Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa).
Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva), another plant named for Lewis, was a food source to the Indians, but not with its generic namesake. He wrote: "...they became perfectly soft by boiling, but had a very bitter taste, which was naucious to my palate, and I transferred them to the Indians who had eat them heartily."
William Clark was not without his own botanical namesake. Frederick Pursh named the Evening Primrose genus Clarkia after him. The specimen gathered in the Rockies was Elkhorn (C. pulchella), of which Lewis wrote a lengthy and detailed description.
The explorers found more edible parsleys in the mountains. Yampah (Perideridia montana), for one. On August 26, 1805 Lewis wrote: I observe the Indian women collecting the root of a species of fennel which grows in the moist grounds and feeding their poor starved children ... when dryed and pounded it makes a fine white meal; the flavor of this root is not unlike that of annis-seed but not so pungent..." The following May Lewis wrote; "our Indian woman (Sacagawea) was busily engaged today in laying in a store of the fennel roots for the Rocky mountains. these are called by the Shoshones year-pah."
The other edible parsley was Nine-leaved Bisquit-Root (Lomatium triternatum). This is what Clark may have been writing about when, on July 9, 1806, he wrote: "The Squar (Sacagawea again) brought me a Plant the root of which the natives eat. This root most resembles a Carrot in form and Size and Something of its colour, being of a pailer yellow ... and the taste is not unlike (the taste of a carrot)."
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