Monday, July 12, 2010

Never too old...Ynes Mexia

Ynes Enriquetta Julietta Mexia
May 24th, 1870 to July 12th, 1938

Ynes Enriquetta Julietta Mexia was an American botanical collector, who developed her passion for botany and fieldwork in her 50's, and yet was able to make about 150,000 collections in 12 years on seven expeditions. She was aged 55 when she made her first collecting trip. She accompanied Stanford's Assistant Herbarium Curator, Roxanna Ferris, in Mexico. Her activity was remarkable, as she spent several years exploring for specimens in remote reaches of Central and South Americas. At age 59, she began a 2-1/2 year expedition in Peru and Brazil which included a three-month period trapped by floods with her team in a 600-m deep gorge which they escaped eventually by building a raft and running the river and its rapids.

Ynes Enriquetta Julietta Mexia [Wikipedia]

Ynes Mexia: Botanist And Adventurer

by

Durlynn Anema

ISBN-10: 1931798672
ISBN-13: 978-1931798679

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