MEXIA, YNES ENRIQUETTA JULIETTA

born May 24, 1870, Georgetown, Washington, D.C., U.S. died July 12, 1938, Berkeley, Calif. American botanical collector and explorer whose discoveries helped to clarify and complete botanical records. The descendant of Mexican-Americans living in Texas, she lived in Texas, Philadelphia, and Mexico City before moving to San Francisco in 1908, having recently been widowed. Mexia was a social worker before entering the University of California as a special student at the age of 51. There she developed an enthusiasm for botany, and in 1925 she began a series of journeys to remote locations in South and Central America and Alaska. On those travels she collected some 150,000 botanical specimens, finding one new genus of Compositae (Mexianthus mexicanus) and more than 500 new species of plants, many of which were named in her honour.