Celebrating Women in Botany

Our California state flower, the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), is a welcome sight in early spring with its ubiquitous orange flowers blooming on hillsides, in gardens and along highway medians. We have a 19th century botanist, Sara Plummer Lemmon, to thank for the adoption of the California poppy as our state flower. She advocated for years towards this goal and, in recognition of Women’s History Month, we’re happy to include her in this short list of notable women botanists who had, or currently have, connections with the University of California at Berkeley and the Garden.

In the late 1800s to early 1900s, paid scientific jobs were hard to come by for anyone, yet women botanists more than managed to make a name for themselves. They contributed greatly to the field, in a time when it was uncommon for women to pursue a career in science or further their educational goals. These intrepid scientists went on collection trips, described and documented many new species and inspired future generations of women botanists.

Sara Plummer Lemmon (1836–1923) was an accomplished botanist and botanical illustrator. She was born in New Gloucester, Maine and received teacher training at the Ladies Collegiate Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts. After moving to New York, she earned a certification in physics and chemistry from Cooper Union. In 1869 she moved to Santa Barbara, California, seeking a more suitable climate for her health, where she discovered her interest in botany. At the age of 44 she married John Lemmon, a Civil War veteran, and together they started the Lemmon Herbarium that was located at 5985 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. They collected hundreds of specimens and these, along with her fragile paintings, are now housed in the University and Jepson Herbaria’s archives and have recently been conserved. There are many North American plant species named after her, including Allium plummera.

During her lifetime Sara Plummer Lemmon held disturbing views of indigenous peoples that are unacceptable by today’s standards. While we do not agree with her viewpoint, we also wish to recognize the strides she made as a woman working in a male-dominated field.

Sara Lemmon (left) and her sister Mattie in Yosemite, undated. Courtesy University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

5985 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland pre-1900, was the home of the Lemmon Herbarium. Look closely and you can see the name on the porch fascia board. Courtesy University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

Circa 2007. Sara Lemmon’s house is still standing and converted to a duplex. When it was a single residence (top) it housed the Lemmon’s herbarium and Sara’s paintings.

Ynes Mexia (1870–1938) was a Mexican American botanist who came to the field late in life. At the age of 51 she pursued her college degree at UC Berkeley. Mexia was a prolific and fearless collector despite only starting to collect in her mid-50s. She gathered thousands of plants in very remote areas including a  major Amazon trip accompanied by only a couple of local guides. Mexia followed a line of UC botanists interested in the wild origins of tobacco and was hired by former Garden Director Thomas Goodspeed as a guide and interpreter for one of the Garden’s expeditions. Her specimens form the backbone of museum-based research for many South and Central American countries.

Her specimens of Nicotiana were grown at the UC Botanical Garden and vouchered for the UC Herbarium.

Mexia on horse, undated. Courtesy California Academy of Sciences

Specimen of Nicotiana tabacum collected from the terraces of Machu Picchu in 1936 and subsequently grown at the Garden and vouchered for the UC Herbarium.

Thousands of vouchers used in research have been collected from the Garden, many from women graduate students who learn collecting and identification skills at the Garden.

No celebration of women botanists can be without Dr. Mary Bowerman (1908-2005), who was a PhD student of Willis Lynn Jepson, a professor of botany at UC Berkeley for over forty years, and for whom the Jepson Manual (Flora of California) takes its name.

Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum) in flower at the UC Botanical Garden nursery

For her dissertation, Mary chose the “Flora of Mount Diablo”, and her dissertation was ultimately published as The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Mt. Diablo. Mount Diablo remained a conservation passion throughout her life, and she was instrumental in creating Save Mount Diablo, a non-profit organization now responsible for conserving over 120,000 acres of land in perpetuity.

Bowerman’s 1936 collection of the Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum) on Mount Diablo, was the last time this rare plant was seen in the wild. Once thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 2005 by UC Berkeley graduate student Michael Park. Working with a consortium of local stakeholders, the UC Botanical Garden is actively producing seed and plants of Eriogonum truncatum for reintroduction to Mount Diablo.

Mary Bowerman in the field, date unknown. Image courtesy of Save Mt. Diablo

Dr. Ertter (1953–), was for many years the Curator of the University Herbarium but also an authority on Rosaceae, particularly Potentilla and the flora of the East Bay. In 2002 Dr. Ertter worked with Dr. Mary Bowerman to revise her book The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Mt. Diablo. She collected a number of native plants from the rose family that are alive in the UC Botanical Garden today. Dr Ertter continues to botanize western North America, working on the East Bay flora, taxonomic treatments in the rose family and flora of North America.

Neviusia cliftonii, Shasta snow wreath, is a rare plant from around Shasta Lake, north of the town of Redding collected by Dr. Barbara Ertter and a colleague in 1992. With collections like this the Garden remains a vital ex situ collection for the conservation of rare plants.

Holly Forbes is the former Curator of the UC Botanical Garden, retiring in 2024 after a distinguished 36-year career. She left a foundational legacy at the Garden by establishing many of the Garden’s conservation programs and by reinforcing the importance of keeping concise records of wild plants at the Garden. Holly, a 4th generation Californian, uses her knowledge of California flora to plan and contribute to conservation efforts with plants such as Delphinium bakeri, D. luteum, and Amsinkia grandiflora. Holly initiated the Garden’s seed banking program that continues to expand today and plays a vital role in the conservation of endangered California species.

Holly Forbes in the field on Mount Burdell Open Space Preserve in Marin County working to collect seeds for the Bureau of Land Management Project: Seeds of Success. The project goal is to collect wildland native seed for research, development, germplasm conservation, and ecosystem restoration.

More recently, geneticist and native Brazilian Dr. Ana Almeida received her PhD at UC Berkeley followed by post-doctoral work in the Specht lab and is now an associate professor and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at California State University, East Bay. In her role as Associate Director of the Green Biome Institute, she studies the genetics of endangered species of California to answer conservation management questions such as whether seed grown in cultivation may be less effective in reintroduction efforts versus wild collected seed. She has used the Garden’s collections to support this research.

Other collections that Dr. Almeida has used from the Garden include the genera Costus (ginger family) and Kalanchoe (a succulent in the stonecrop family) on which she studies their evolution of pollination and asexual reproduction.

Professor Ana Almeida of California State University East Bay with lab members Weilun Tan and Bharti Parihar sample rare California plants for genetic studies.

Hot on the heels of those past and current, the Garden and UC Berkeley are actively engaged in training the next generation of women botanists through a variety of initiatives, including freshman seminars held at the Garden, practical classes, student employment and by enabling senior thesis project work and graduate research to be conducted on the Garden’s unique plant collections.