Artists paint Lewis and Clark’s flora

OROFINO, Idaho – When Thomas Jefferson dispatched the Corps of Discovery west two centuries ago, he directed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to bring back a vision of the flora and fauna found as they explored the Louisiana Purchase.

The animal species were many. But the hundreds of plant specimens that were collected, say historians, offered a more complete image of what lay beyond the western horizon.

Virtually all of those plant species were gathered by Lewis and are preserved at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The specimens have been studied, photographed and otherwise secured as priceless scientific artifacts.

Now, two centuries later, those same plants continue to grow along the Lewis and Clark Trail and have become the focus of 16 people with an artistic bent.

The artistic works will be assembled as the “Botanical Treasures of Lewis and Clark” and displayed next year in Washington at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.