Emma J. Cole

Emma Jane Cole (January 23, 1845 – April 25, 1910) was an American teacher, botanist, and curator, and the author of Grand Rapids Flora: A Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultivation in the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2007.

Early life Emma Jane Cole was born in Ohio on January 23, 1845. During her childhood, her family moved to Vergennes Township, near Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she attended Lowell Union School and Grand Rapids High School.

Cole is well known for her 1901 book, Grand Rapids Flora: A Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultivation in the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan awards the Emma J. Cole Fellowship in Botany to a graduate student. The Board of Education of Grand Rapids was granted a trust to buy botany equipment for Central High School. The Emma J. Cole Flower Fund funded biannual "flower services" at eight Grand Rapids churches. The Emma J. Cole collection (held at the Grand Rapids Public Library) documents these "flower services."

A species of hawthorn that Cole discovered, Crataegus coleae, was named for her. Charles Sprague Sargent wrote of the honor:

A project at Calvin University from 2014 to 2018 attempted to revisit and assess all the locations described in Grand Rapids Flora. The Friends of Grand Rapids Parks together with Calvin University students are conducting botanical inventories for their Emma Cole Project at 12 different local parks, including Ken-O-Sha Park.