Ynes Mexia
Ynés Enriquetta Julietta Mexía was a Mexican-American botanist known for her collection of novel plant specimens from areas of Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. She discovered a new genus of Asteraceae and was the most accomplished plant collector of her time, accumulating over 150,000 specimens for study. Botanist and explorer Ynés Mexía, braved earthquakes, bogs, and poisonous berries all for the sake of botanical discoveries.
Biography
Ynés Mexía was born in 1870 in Washington, D.C. to Enrique Mexía and Sarah Wilmer Mexía. She was the daughter of a Mexican diplomat and the granddaughter of a distinguished Mexican general, José Antonio Mexía. When she was very young, her parents divorced. Her father returned to Mexico, and her mother moved the family to a ranch in Limestone, Texas, later to be called Mexia. Later, the family moved around in various eastern cities and settled in Maryland, where Ynés attended St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Emmittsburg. In 1887, she moved to Mexico where she remained with her father for ten years.Her second husband continued to live in Mexico, and they eventually separated. There she started going on excursions into the mountains of Northern California with the Sierra Club and fell in love with the redwoods, the birds, the plants, and the quiet. She became involved in social work and was an active member of the Sierra Club, which motivated her to attend the University of California, Berkeley.
Her interest in botanical collecting began in 1922 when she joined an expedition led by Eustace. L. Furlong, a Berkeley paleontologist. She then enrolled in a course on flowering plants at the Hopkins Marine Station with LeRoy Abrams in Pacific Grove, California. A 1980 letter from John Thomas Howell reminisces about the autumn of 1923:
"When I was enrolled in freshman botany at UCB and Mrs. Mexía was attending advanced classes... We were on a field trip with the Calypso Club, the student botanical club. We had spent the day under the guidance of Herbert Mason exploring the floristic riches of Jasper Ridge... Separated from the rest of the club, we made a wrong turn...reached the station long after our train had departed... Eventually we arrived in Berkeley. Mrs. Mexía never let me forget it!"At that time, it was very remarkable for that experience to have occurred unchaperoned. In 1924 she became a United States citizen.
In July of 1925, at the age of 55, Ynés wrote to Alice Eastwood, letting Eastwood know that she was about to accompany Stanford's Assistant Herbarium Curator, Roxanna Ferris, on a collecting trip to Mexico. This would be her first botanical exploration trip to Mexico. Once in Mexico, Mexía decided that she could accomplish more on her own and abandoned the group, traveling the country for two years and collecting more than 1,500 specimens. The trip resulted in 500 species being collected, including one named in Mexía's honor, Mimosa mexiae. Finally, in middle age, Mexía had found her purpose in life, writing: "… I have a job, I produce something real and lasting." She made three additional expeditions to Mexico and collected throughout South America in remote areas of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. She also collected in Alaska and other areas of the continental United States.
After her first major expedition to Sinaloa, Mexico in 1925, she spent 13 years traveling from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, often shocking those she met because she was traveling solo, riding horseback with knickers, and preferring to sleep outside even when a bed was available. "A well-known collector and explorer stated very positively that 'it was impossible for a woman to travel alone in Latin America,'" she wrote, continuing, "I decided that if I wanted to become better acquainted with the South American continent the best way would be to make my way right across it."
In 1938, during an expedition to Oaxaca, Mexico, Mexía became ill. She tried to continue but had to turn back and return to the United States, where she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died within one month at age 68. William E. Colby, the secretary of the Sierra Club, wrote, "All who knew Ynés Mexía could not fail to be impressed by her friendly unassuming spirit, and by that rare courage which enabled her to travel, much of the time alone, in lands where few would dare to follow."
In the same 1980 letter where he described his student botanical club adventure with Ynés Mexía, John Thomas Howell refers to her as a "close friend of Alice Eastwood." He continues, "In 1933 she accompanied Miss Eastwood and me on the first Eastwood and Howell collecting expedition.….in an open Model T Ford, that traversed parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and California...and netted over 1300 collection numbers... Mrs. Mexía was to me a dear good friend."
Career
Once, Mexía joined a collecting trip to Mexico where she fell off a cliff, injuring her hand and fracturing her ribs. No obstacle could stand in Mexía's way, whether that be broken bones, poison, or dangerous terrain. She was an adventurer in the name of science. In 1928 she was hired to collect plants in Alaska. The next year she went to South America and travelled by canoe down the Amazon River, covering 4,800 kilometres in two and a half years to its source in the Andes. Her specimens were widely distributed to herbaria throughout the United States and western Europe. In addition to collecting, Mexía wrote articles and gave lectures describing her adventures and travels.During her collecting trips, Mexía would occasionally join other expeditions, including one headed by A.S. Hitchcock and Agnes Chase of the U.S. National Herbarium, and T. Harper Goodspeed's University of California Botanical Expedition. Mexía learned how to collect from Alice Eastwood of the California Academy of Sciences. Nina Floy Bracelin served as Mexía's collection manager, caring for the specimens and sending them out for identification. Credit is due to Bracelin, affectionately known as "Bracie," who prepared Mexía's specimens for herbaria. She worked diligently to label the specimens, sending sets to specialists so their species could be determined and distributing the duplicates. Mexía was said to be more interested in exploration and discovery rather than preparing her specimens, but her legacy lives on through those preserved botanical collections. In her will, Mexía left enough money to the California Academy of Sciences to hire Bracelin as an assistant to Alice Eastwood.
Mexía was an active member of many scientific societies, including the California Botanical Society, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Association of the Pacific, the Sociedad Geográfica de Lima, and the California Academy of Sciences. She was also an honorary member of the Departamento Forestal, de Caza y Pesca de Mexico. Her specimens can be viewed at the California Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Gray Herbarium, the New York Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of California, Berkeley, and the U.S. National Arboretum, as well as several museums and botanical gardens throughout Europe. Her personal papers are preserved at the California Academy of Sciences and at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.
Accomplishments
Mexía was also unusual for an American botanical collector during that era. Not only was she a woman, she was also of Mexican heritage and suffered some prejudice in a largely white field, and she was older—she started her career in her mid-fifties. "Women were actively dissuaded from doing that kind of work, because it was considered unfeminine and dangerous," says Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, a professor of the history of biological sciences at the University of Florida. "You actually have to camp out, you couldn’t wash your hair, you were living a kind of rough life, and that could be dangerous…. But Mexía had agency. She was doing exactly the work that she wanted to do." Mexía had a life membership in the California Academy of Sciences and published a book, Brazilian Ferns Collected by Ynés Mexía, with Edwin Bingham Copeland, in 1932.Though Mexía had a short professional career—only 13 years—compared to many other academics, she collected a huge number of plant specimens. According to the British Natural History museum, she collected at least 145,000 plant specimens during her travels, 500 of which were new species. During her first expedition, she collected 500 specimens, which is the same number collected during Darwin's voyage on the Beagle. Although curators are still working to catalogue her full selection of specimens, 50 new species have already been named after her.
Career and legacy
Mexía began her botany career at the age of 55 with a 1925 trip to western Mexico under the tutelage of Roxanna Ferris, a botanist at Stanford University. Mexía fell off a cliff and was injured, halting the trip, which yielded 500 specimens, including several new species. The first species to be named after her, Mimosa mexiae, was discovered on this excursion.Over the next 13 years, she traveled to Argentina, Chile, Denali, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and the Straits of Magellan, and southwestern Mexico on seven different collecting trips, discovering one new genus, Mexianthus, and many new species among her 150,000 total specimens. She frequently traveled alone, which was rare for women in the early 20th century. During her trip to Western Mexico, she collected over 33,000 specimens, including 50 new species. In Ecuador, Mexía worked with the Bureau of Plant Industry and Exploration, part of Ecuador's Department of Agriculture. There, she looked for the wax palm, cinchona, and herbs that bind to the soil. Mexía once traveled up the Amazon River to its source in the Andes mountains with a guide and three other men in a canoe. She also spent three months living with the Araguarunas,
a native group in the Amazon. All of these excursions were funded by the sale of her specimens to collectors and institutions alike. Specimens from these trips were stored in the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
She often lectured in the San Francisco Bay Area, sharing stories and photographs of her travels. Notes on her expeditions appeared regularly in The Gull, the newsletter of the Audubon Society of the Pacific, between 1926 and 1935. The ' published two accounts of her adventures, "Three Thousand Miles up the Amazon", and "Camping on the Equator". Several accounts of her expeditions were published in ', the journal of the California Botanical Society. It also published a biographical note after her death in 1938. She was a member of the California Botanical Society, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Association of the Pacific, the , and had been made a life member of the California Academy of Sciences. She was also an honorary member of the Departamento Forestal y de Casa y Pesca de Mexico.
Mexía was remembered by her colleagues for her expertise on life in the field and her resilience in the tough conditions, as well as her impulsiveness and fractious but generous personality. They lauded her meticulous, careful work and her skills as a collector.
There is substantial agreement that Mexía collected some 150,000 specimens in her lifetime. Estimates of new species range from two to 500. The credits her with two new genera. Mexianthus, named for Mexía, is a genus of Asteraceae.
Her specimen collections can be viewed at the California Academy of Sciences. Portions are duplicated at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; Catholic University, Washington, D.C.; the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Gray Herbarium, Harvard University; the University of California, Berkeley; and important museums and botanical gardens in London, Copenhagen, Geneva, Paris, Stockholm, and Zurich. Her personal papers are at the California Academy of Sciences and at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.