Specimen, Veronica - English

Custis' Specimen: Veronicastrum virginium

eter Custis collected twenty-six plant specimens on the Red River Expedition, but only two of those are still in existence, both in the Bartram Herbarium at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. In contrast, there are 216 specimens in the Lewis and Clark Herbarium at the ANS.¹

Veronicastrum virginicum L.., which belongs to the snapdragon family (Scrophulariaceae [skro-foo-LAIR-eye-AY-cee-eye]), is rarely seen in the wilds today.² It is a cultivar, a native plant selected for domestic cultivation. Now known most widely as Culver's root, during its latter wildland history it bore a number of other common names: Bowman's root, Beaumont root, Culver's physic, physic root; Hini, leptandra, oxadoddy, tall speedwell, tall veronica, and whorlywort. It was widely used for medicinal purposes, as a cathartic, cholagogue, emetic, hepatic, alterative, tonic, and antiseptic, but it is not recommended for use without medical supervision, and the fresh root is too toxic to be used at all.

Text based on Flores, J&SE, 249-50 and note 164, and D. T. MacRoberts et al, "A Floristic and Ecological Interpretation of the Freeman and Custis Red River Expedition of 1806," Bulletin of the Museum of Life Sciences.

--Joseph Mussulman

1. Lewis preserved many more specimens, but all those collected between Fort Mandan and Great Falls, which he placed in an underground cache for safekeeping at the latter place, were found to have been severely damaged by water upon his return in early July of 1806, and were discarded.

2. The Latin word scrophula refers to a swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck, and alludes here to the medicinal functions of this plant family.