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Lewis reports on 16 Apr 1806 he "preserved . . . a currant which is now in blume and has yellow blossom something like the yellow currant of the Missouri but a different species" (Moulton, 1991: 126). The expedition was at The Dalles along the Columbia River. Specimens of the collection are preserved at K and PH. The Kew sheet is annotated "Ribes flavum / Narrows of Columbia / Aprl. 16th 1806" while the right-hand specimen on the Academy sheet is annotated "Yellow Flowering Currant. / -- / Near the narrows of / Columbia R. / -- / Aprl. 16th 1806." The right-hand specimen on the K sheet is in good flower while the 16 Apr 1806 specimen on PH-LC 191 has only a few flowers remaining in a packet.
Lewis originally gathered Ribes aureum on 29 Jul 1805 at Three Forks in Gallatin Co., Montana, according to the label data: "Yellow Currant of the / Missouri. / Jul. 29th 1805." At present, the specimen (PH-191, left-hand specimen) consists only of a twig and fragments of the leaves. [footnote 8] Based on the glabrous leaves, the collection is the western var. aureum rather than the eastern var. villosum Berland. (in Mém. Soc. Phys. Hist. Genève 3(2): 60. 1826). Nonetheless, on 2 Aug 1805, Lewis reports: "we found a great courants, two kinds of which were red, others yellow deep purple and black, also goosburies and service buries now ripe and in full perfection, we feasted suptuously on our wild fruit particularly the yellow courant and the deep purple servicebury which I found to be excellent" (Moulton, 1988, 30-31, 35).
The expedition was along the Jefferson River in Madison Co., Montana. Both locations are within the known distribution of Ribes aureum var. aureum.
[footnote 8:] On 8 Jul 1806, Clark recovered a cache buried on 20 Aug 1805 by Lewis (see Moulton, 1988: 125-126). Clark reports, "I found every article Safe, except a little damp" (Moulton, 1933: 172). Moulton (p. 173) suggests that "only one plant specimen (golden currant) remains of those which were cached" at Camp Fortunate (located just below the forks of the Beaverhead River and Horse Prairie Creek in Beaverhead Co., Montana). The item in question is the 29 Jul 1805 collection (PH-LC 192, left-hand specimen).
Lewis constantly compares two yellow-flowered currants, referring to them as the Columbia and as the Missouri yellow currant. Lewis was already familiar with buffalo currant, Ribes aureum var. villosum (including R. odoratum Wendl. in Bartl. & Wendl., Beitr. Bot. 2: 15. Dec 1825), having seen the taxon while ascending the Missouri River during the spring of 1805. On 30 Apr 1805, according to Lewis, Sacagawea "found & brought me a bush Something like the Current, which She Said bore a delicious froot and that great quantites grew on the Rocky Mountains, this Srub was in bloom has a yellow flower with a deep Cup, the froot when ripe is yellow and hangs in bunches like Cheries, Some of those berries yet remained on the bushes" (Moulton, 1987b: 89). Most assuredly Lewis preserved a specimen subsequently lost in the White Bear Island cache (see Hordeum jubatum, No 89 above). It was likely that this introduction is the basis for his assuming all yellow-flowered currants east of the Continental Divide (including R. americanum Mill., Gard. Dict., ed. 8: unpaged [Ribes no. 4]. 1768) represent a single species (i.e., the Missouri yellow currant); see Moulton (1987b: 91).
Lewis reports "the yellow Currants beginning to ripen" on 12 Jul 1806 when he was near present-day Great Falls in Cascade Co., Montana, (Moulton, 1993: 107). This probably refers to the more western var. aureum. On 9 Aug 1806, Clark reports receiving a "deep purple berry of the large Cherry of the Current Speces" which Moulton (1993: 286) takes as a reference to "the golden currant" (p. 287, i.e. Ribes aureum). The plants would have been in good fruit at this time of the year. Clark's party was along the Missouri River in what are now McKenzie and Williams cos., North Dakota, well within the present-day distribution of var. villosum. There is no indication that seeds or specimens were collected.
Pursh gives the location for Ribes aureum as "On the banks of the river Missouri and Columbia," and indicates he saw garden material. The Missouri River reference appears to be documented by sterile material on the Lambert sheet at Kew (two left-hand specimens -K, Moulton 149b). As may be seen below (No. 166), the Missouri reference and certainly the sterile stems, now appear to represent R. aureum var. villosum (R. odoratum) and not the var. aureum as suggested by Moulton (1991: 129).
(The Lewis & Clark Herbarium Digital Imagery Study Set, ANSP, 2002)
On deposit at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia Collected by:Meriwether Lewis & William Clark
