Ynes Mexia
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Ynes Mexia was a Mexican American botanist who collected more than 145,000 specimens.[1] She found 500 new species with 50 of them named after her.[2] She also discovered two new genera.[2] Mimosa Mexiae was one of the first plants named after her.[3] She went to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1921 to pursue botany.[1] She collected 1,500 specimens by herself in Mexico on her first trip.[3] She spent 13 years traveling around the Americas mostly alone.[3] Mexia was the first person to collect specimens from Denali, Alaska.[1] Her most lengthy trip was a 3,000-mile trek across South America.[1] She was contracted by the California Academy of Sciences to collect plants for botanists there.[2] She gave around $50,000 to the Sierra Club and Save the Redwoods League in total.[2] A redwood grove was also named after her honor.[1] Researchers still use her collections to this day.[3] Some of the plants she collected and discovered can be seen in many museums and universities today as well.[3]
References
[change | change source]- 1 2 3 4 5 Harbster, Jennifer (2024-10-11). "145,000 Plants with Adventuress Ynes Mexia | Inside Adams". The Library of Congress. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
- 1 2 3 4 Montana, Katherine. "Untold Stories: Ynes Mexia". www.calacademy.org. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Ynes Mexia (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2025-04-17.