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Buffaloberry

Chokecherry

Prairie Crabapple

Currant

Gooseberry

Grape

Hazelnut

Wild Plum

To find more on these interesting native fruits and berries on the Internet, enter the scientific name in a search engine. Be sure to go through a number of sites, as information is often sketchy, and varied.

ON THE BOTANY TRAIL

FRUITS

THE ABUNDANCE OF FRUIT is one of the impressions gained from reading the 1804 journals of this area.  It was a time when much was ripe.  The mulberries may have been past their season, and hazelnuts and crabapples not ready yet, but an abundance of plums, grapes, chokecherries, etc. was often noted.  Hazelnuts are included here because they seemed to be found with these fruits.  Except for grapes, many of the fruits tended to sucker and grow in thickets.

Buffaloberry – Shepherdia argentea
Mentioned first on August 21st and again on the 24th, it was described as a fruit resembling the red currant, the Indian name for which in English means Rabbit berries, and it made delightful tarts.   Lewis collected a specimen September 4th, and wrote: “Obtained at the mouth of the Niobrara River, from which place upward it is abundant in the Missouri bottoms, it is a pleasant berry to eat, it has much the flavor of the cranberry and continues on the bush through the winter.”  His specimen is in the Lewis and Clark Herbarium, and the plant was new to science.

Chokecherry and ? – Prunus virginiana, and ?
Their cherry was the chokecherry, described as having fruit larger than the common wild cherry or Black cherry.  It apparently was unfamiliar to the men.  Chokecherries were first noted by them the second day in Nebraska waters and seemed to continue upriver, as the Mandan Indians used them.   The men gathered chokecherries July 19th and put them in the barrel of whiskey.  The last of the whisky was used July 4, 1805, but the journals perhaps did not relate the disposition of the chokecherries therein.  Birds love chokecherries.  Chokecherries make excellent jelly.   Cutright identified the wild cherry once as the Sand cherry, Prunus pumila.  Does this explain the “wild cherries of two kinds” that Clark noted on July 15th?  Clark in the undated summary after their return wrote: “Chokecherry found between the 2 Nemaha Rivers...also another species of cherry.”   Biddle’s entry for July 12th in the 1814 book reads: “the wild cherry of the Missouri, resembling our own, but larger, and grows on a small bush, and the chokecherry, which we observed for the first time.”

Crab Apple – Malus
Mentioned twice, July 12th and August 1st.  It would appear to be the Prairie Crab, Malus ioensis, according to a field guide on trees.   On June 26th, Moulton had indicated the wild crab, Pyrus ioensis, as the most common one in Missouri.  The Genus name Malus is apple, Pyrus is generally pear; why this crabapple is so often seen as Pyrus needs explaining by a good botanist. The species name ioensis refers to Iowa.   Crabapples make good jelly; in fact, distinctive enough to be known as “crabapple jelly” rather than simply “apple jelly.”  The Prairie Crabapple is described as a small tree with whitish-haired stems, rather distinctive scalloped leaf edges and showy fragrant flowers.

Currant – Ribes sp.
The Blue Currant “common in the U.S.” was the Wild black currant, Ribes americanum.  Lewis collected a specimen August 1st and described it in the Fort Mandan shipment as “the purple currant, which is frequently cultivated in the Atlantic states; the fruit was ripe … here it grows generally in the prairies but is not very abundant.”  This specimen is one of those that are not in the present-day Lewis & Clark Herbarium. The Blue Currant was mentioned twice: August 1st as a part of Clark’s birthday dessert; and August 25th when “some still on the bushes,” at which time Moulton indicated it could also be the Buffalo currant, Ribes odoratum.   Both the Current and Gooseberry are of same Genus, Ribes.  Cutright indicated they later would discover seven new Ribes species.

Gooseberry – Ribes sp. 
Clark called it “the Gooseberry common to the U.S.”  Moulton had identified the Native Gooseberry, Ribes missouriense, in the St. Louis area.  Whether it was the same species here, or another, is not known.   Gooseberries were mentioned three times in our area, the last being on Clark’s birthday, although he did NOT include it with the berries that composed his birthday dessert.  A few generations ago, it was usual for gooseberry and currant bushes to be a part of a Midwestern garden.

Grapes – Vites sp.
The grapes were coming ripe as the expedition traveled in 1804.  They are mentioned in the journals at least 15 days, and at least three kinds were noted.  They were probably:  River-bank grape, Vitis riparia; Summer grape, Pigeon grape, Vites aestivalis, with leaves white to silver underneath (another grape, the Grayback grape, Vitis cinerea, would also have been in the area; its leaves have lighter undersides and could be confused with the Summer grape); and he Winter grape, Vitis vulpina.  The purple grape whose flavor was referred to Aug. 5th may have been a parent of the Concord grape, which was developed about 1850 from native wild grapes in Concord, Mass.  In Clark’s undated summary after their return, he wrote: “The grape are abundant below Cannon Ball River [ND] 1500 miles up, and from thence down to the entrance of the river into the Mississippi.”

Hazelnut – Corylus americana.   Also sometimes known as Filberts.
Hazelnuts are included here because they seemed to be found with plums, chokecherries, etc.  They too tended to grow in thickets.  They were eaten not only by people but also by some animals.  Being short, they were easy to pick, and the nuts were easy to crack and eat.  Incidentally, hazelnuts are second only to almonds in worldwide nut production, with Oregon leading in the U.S. – these are hybrids, grown as small trees in orchards, and are under consideration as a crop for Nebraska.   In the journals, Hazel was mentioned three times, the last being August 1st.  This correlates with Clark’s undated list: “Hazel bushes are found as high up as the Council Bluff.”

Plums – Prunus sp.
Plums made the journals at least 11 days.  They tended to spell it “plumb” and to note “copses” or plum “orchards,” seldom using our usual term “thicket.”   Common wild plum,  Prunus americana.  There is much variation from bush to bush, both in the redness and in the tartness or mildness.  The wild plum covered a large area, including downriver and upriver from our area, as its species name, americana, implies.  Clark in the undated summary after their return wrote: “ Wild plumbs first appear at the cut off or Mandan Island [ND]. Below the Mandans though, they are scarce and small.  They become abundant and fine in the neighborhood of the White River [SD, and downriver].”  Yellow plum, Big-tree plum, Prunus mexicana.  The oval one was probably a variation.  Clark described the yellow plums as larger and delicious.  These were mentioned only two consecutive days, August 24 and 25, in the Nebraska-South Dakota area.   Osage plum, Chickasaw plum, Sandhill plum, Prunus angustifolia, had been mentioned downriver, but only once in our area, July 12th in southern Nebraska.

Raspberry – Rubus sp.
Raspberries were mentioned one time, August 1st, but there were enough to be included in Clark’s birthday dessert. This was at Camp Council Bluff and the men may have had more time to look around there.  The American or wild red raspberry, Rubus idaeus, has a coast-to-coast range and prefers wetland areas but whether this was it is not known.  Raspberry did not seem to be mentioned again on the way upriver to Fort Mandan, ND. 

However, the episode with the lost Shannon indicates that a “land of plenty” to the expedition meant meat rather than fruit or any plants that the Frenchmen may have pointed out as Indian food.