Ynes Mexia

Ynes Mexia was a Mexican American botanist who collected more than 145,000 specimens. She found 500 new species with 50 of them named after her. She also discovered two new genera. Mimosa Mexiae was one of the first plants named after her. She went to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1921 to pursue botany. She collected 1,500 specimens by herself in Mexico on her first trip. She spent 13 years traveling around the Americas mostly alone. Mexia was the first person to collect specimens from Denali, Alaska. Her most lengthy trip was a 3,000-mile trek across South America. She was contracted by the California Academy of Sciences to collect plants for botanists there. She gave around $50,000 to the Sierra Club and Save the Redwoods League in total. A redwood grove was also named after her honor. Researchers still use her collections to this day. Some of the plants she collected and discovered can be seen in many museums and universities today as well.

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