Ynes Mexía was an American botanist of Mexican descent who dedicated the last years of her life to botany, discovering hundreds of new specimens
Her name was Ynes Mexía and she was an explorer and botanist who dedicated part of her life to the discovery of hidden places in Ecuador, Colombia and especially Mexico. Although she never earned a degree in botany, she is remembered as one of the women who most made her mark in her field.
Ynes Mexía is the character depicted in Google's September 15 Doodle. The Doodle is an image that depicts a person or an event and that replaces for one day the classic Google logo on the page of the search engine. Ynes Mexía was chosen because September is the month dedicated to the Hispanic cultural heritage and on September 15, 1925 she left to explore Mexico, especially the region of Sinaloa. He returned from the trip with more than 500 specimens of plant species, 50 of which were unknown until then and now bear his name. Almost one hundred years later, the Hispanic-American woman's studies are still being studied in universities around the world.
The Life of Ynes Mexía
Ynes Mexía grew up in the United States of the late 1800s. She was born in Washington in 1870, the daughter of a Mexican diplomat who moved to the United States. Little is known about her life until the age of 50, when she became passionate about botany and began studying nature. At the age of 55, she set out on a journey to the Sinaloa region of Mexico to discover botanical species. He returned from the trip with over 500 specimens, 50 of which had never been discovered before. In the following years she continued to explore Mexico and in 1928 she discovered a flowering plant of the daisy family that was given the name Zexmenia mexiae in her honor.
In addition to Mexico, she also traveled to Colombia and Ecuador braving natural disasters, swamps and poisonous berries to search for hidden volcanoes in the forests that had never been explored until then. Ynes Mexía became one of the most important botanists in the world and also one of the largest collectors of plant species. It is estimated that she collected over 150,000 specimens during her travels. Almost 100 years after her discoveries, scientists still study the findings of Ynes Mexía. She died in Berkeley, California, on July 12, 1938, at the age of 68.