Ynés Mexía

Ynés Enriquetta Julietta Mexía was born on May 24, 1870, in Washington D.C., where her father, Enrique Mexía, was a Mexican diplomat. A year later, they moved to Mexia, Texas, a town founded by her ancestors. In 1879, after her parents separated, Mexía was sent to a boarding school where she felt isolated and lonely. After completing her studies, she considered entering a convent, but her father asked her to supervise his ranch and household in Mexico. In 1896, her father died, and Mexía stayed in Mexico managing his businesses.

In 1909, after two troubled marriages, she developed a mental and physical illness, then called a “nervous breakdown,” and her physician in Mexico advised her to seek medical help from the noted psychiatrist, Phillip King Brown. Mexía moved to San Francisco, California, and was under Dr. Brown’s care for 10 years. Following his encouragement, she joined the Save the Redwoods League and the Sierra Club, and became an active member of the early environmental movement in California. She participated in hiking and camping trips in the National Parks, and developed a deep interest in plants and nature.

In 1921, at age 51, Mexía enrolled at University of California Berkeley, where she took classes in science and natural history and attended a university expedition where she was introduced to botany, the study of plants. In 1925, Mexía was invited on her first plant collecting trip to Sinaloa, Mexico, on a group expedition sponsored by Stanford University.  Mexía soon realized she would be more productive on her own, and secured funding from other institutions and ventured alone with local guides into Mazatlán and the Sierra Madre Mountains. Mexía continued to explore and collect plants in little-visited regions of North and South America, including Mt. McKinley National Park in Alaska, as well as in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina.

In a 13-year career, Mexía collected more than 145,000 plant specimens and discovered 500 new species, of which several are named in her honor. In 1938, on her last expedition in Mexico, she became sick and was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died on July 12, 1938. Mexía is recognized as one of the most accomplished and prolific female botanists of her time, demonstrating that there is no age limit to pursuing your life’s passions.