[1][2][3] Clarkia pulchella is found in the Pacific Northwest mainly east of the Cascade Range in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, the southern margin of British Columbia and the extreme west of Montana.

The discovery was first described on May 28, 1806, by William Clark and subsequently by Lewis on June 1 of that year in a journal entry stating that: I met with a singular plant today in blume of which I preserved a specemine; it grows on the steep sides of the fertile hills near this place, the radix is fibrous, not much branched, annual, woody, white and nearly smooth.

the leaf is sissile, scattered thinly, nearly linear tho' somewhat widest in the middle, two inches in length absolutely entire, villose, obtusely pointed and of an ordinary green.

the second set of stamens are very minute are also four and placed within and opposite to the petals, these are scarcely perceptible while the 1st are large and conspicuous; the filaments are capillary equal, very short, white and smooth.

It was not until 1814 however that the plant was classified and named Clarckia pulchella by Frederick Traugott Pursh in honor of Clark even though in his journal entry he acknowledged Lewis as the discoverer.

He used these pollen granules because they contain oblong particles, which he observed were 6 to 8 micrometres in length, and he thought that he could follow their progress during fertilization, which was the initial subject of his investigation.