Ynes Mexia

BOTANIST
With minimal training, she DISCOVERED at least fifty new plant species, as well as one entire new genus
Daughter of a Mexican diplomat, she started a successful business raising poultry and other stock animals, but her husband bankrupted it while she was undergoing medical treatment in America
Divorced her no-good husband and moved to San Francisco, where she worked as a social worker for most of the next twenty years
Battling depression and emotional instability, she began hiking with the local Sierra Club
Attended natural science and botany classes at the University of California, Berkeley, though she never graduated
Went on her first expedition when she was 55 years old, collecting more than 150,000 plant specimens in the last twelve years of her life
Although most known for her work in Mexico and South America, especially her trip up the Amazon River, she also traveled to Alaska, collecting more than 6,000 specimens there
Many of her discoveries were named after her
Primarily traveled alone (other than hired guides and porters)
Lived in extremely remote areas in rugged camping conditions, unlike many botanists of her time who only traveled by train and stayed in hotels

Bibliography: Cummins, Julie. Women Explorers: Perils, Pistols, and Petticoats. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012. Print.
Maggs, Sam. Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2016. Print.
Ross, Michael E. A World of Her Own: 24 Amazing Women Explorers and Adventurers. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2014. Print.

Support these organizations dedicated to preserving her story & mission:

California Academy of Sciences
University and Jepson Herbaria

Biographies for Kids and Young Adults

Research

Women Explorers: Perils, Pistols, and Petticoats

The Ynés Mexía botanical collections: oral history transcript

A World of Her Own: 24 Amazing Women Explorers and Adventurers

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