Ynes Mexia

Ynés Enriquetta Julietta Mexía (May 24, 1870 – July 12, 1938) was a Mexican-American botanist notable for her extensive collection of novel specimens of flora and plants originating from sites in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. She discovered a new genus of Asteraceae, known after her as Mexianthus, and accumulated over 150,000 specimens for botanical study over the course of a career spanning 16 years enduring challenges in the field that included poisonous berries, dangerous terrain, bogs and earthquakes for the sake of her research.

Biography Ynés Mexía was born on May 24, 1870, in Washington, D.C., to Enrique Mexia, a Mexican diplomat, and Sarah Wilmer Mexía. Her grandfather was José Antonio Mexía, a distinguished Mexican general.

In 1873, her father returned to Mexico, and her mother moved Ynés and her six half-siblings to a ranch in Limestone, Texas, later to be called Mexia. Later, the family moved around in various eastern cities such as Philadelphia and Ontario, where she received a private school education. They settled in Maryland, where Ynés attended St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Emmittsburg.

While residing there in 1897, Mexia married her first husband, Herman de Laue, a Spanish-German merchant, who died in 1904. Later, she married D. Augustin Reygados, but the union ended in divorce in 1906, after he effectively bankrupted the business. for a total of ten years.

Over the course of the next 13 years, Mexía traveled from the northern regions of Alaska to the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego. Her habits often surprised people she met because she was not acting in a manner typical of a woman of the early 20th century: traveling alone, riding horseback, wearing trousers (knickers), and preferring to sleep outside even if beds or indoor accommodations were available.

Career

Mexía began her career in botany in 1922 when she joined an expedition led by Mr. E. L. Furlong, the Curator of Paleontology at University of California, Berkeley. She collected the type specimen of Mexianthus in December 1926, south of Puerto Vallarta.

In 1928 she was hired to collect plants in Mount McKinley National Park in Alaska, which yielded 6100 specimens. This expedition resulted in 65,000 specimens. and "Camping on the Equator" (SCB, 22:1 , 85–91).

Mexía was an active member of many scientific societies, including the California Botanical Society which she joined in 1915, 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.

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, There have been at least two new genera Mexianthus mexicanus Robinson (Compositae) and Spumula quadrifida (Pucciniaceae) have been described from her work. Although curators are still working to catalogue her full selection of specimens, 50 new species have already been named after her. Thomas Harper Goodspeed, botanist and former director of the University of California Botanical Garden, travelled with Mexía to the Andes mountains, and commented that "the advice and information she gave us concerning primitive life in the Andes and how to become adjusted to it was invaluable."

Publications Botanical Trails in Old Mexico (1929) Plant lists, Brazil, Mexico, and South America. (1930) Brazilian ferns collected by Ynes Mexia. With Edwin Bingham Copeland. Editor University Press (1932) Three Thousand Miles up the Amazon (1933) Mrs. Ynes Mexiás Route in Ecuador, 1934–1935 (1936) Camping on the Equator (1937)