In 1806 the Corps of Discovery had to camp in Idaho for nearly a month to wait for the snow to melt in the Bitterroot Mountains before they were able to cross through them into Montana. During that time Meriwether Lewis studied and described many of the plant specimens that he had collected, and his description of Clarkia was among his most detailed, running to nearly 500 words.
Of this plant’s common names of Clarkia, Ragged Robin, Pink Fairy and Deerhorn, I like Clarkia the best. There is a very interesting page on the lewis-clark.org website about this plant, including some of the description written by Lewis.
