By Jacqui Nelson
Can you imagine having a mountain named after you? Or being responsible for a flower becoming a state flower? Sara Plummer Lemmon accomplished both feats with no formal training in botany. Here's how she made history...
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Sara Plummer Lemmon
( born 1836 in New Gloucester, Maine )
( born 1836 in New Gloucester, Maine )
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| Sara in 1865 |
In 1869 (after becoming ill and hearing that California’s weather could help one’s health), she moved to Santa Barbara.
She established the Lending Library and Stationery Depot and charged $5 membership or 10 cents for borrowing books, sold art and music supplies, hosted lectures and exhibits, and while out walking acquired an interest in botany and began painting botanical illustrations.
In 1876, she met John Gill Lemmon (a Civil War veteran, former Andersonville prisoner, and fellow self-trained botanist) while he was giving a lecture.
In 1880, they married and honeymooned in Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains where they cataloged a number of species unique to the mountain. Sara was the first white woman to ascend the mountain's tallest peak and it was named Mount Lemmon in her honor.
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| Sara & John camping during their honeymoon on Mount Lemmon (photo LocalWiki Contributors) |
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| Mount Lemmon, Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona |
Sara and John continued traveling and cataloging botany but also developed the Lemmon Herbarium at their home in Oakland (which they later donated to UC Berkeley).
In 1882, Sara discovered a new genus of plants called Plummera floribunda. From 1888–1892, she worked as the California State Board of Forestry’s official artist. In 1893, she lectured on forest conservation at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
During the 1890s, she advocated for the adoption of the golden poppy as California’s state flower and wrote the bill eventually signed by the California Legislature in 1903.
I love California/golden poppies! ❤️
I see them everywhere here on British Columbia's southwest coast. I also remember them from the farm in Alberta where I grew up. They are an old and dear friend.
What's your favorite state or provincial flower?
Here are the lists of America's state flowers and Canada's provincial flowers (plus more).
I love the wild rose which is the provincial flower of Alberta and (which I've just learned while researching this blog) is the state flower of North Dakota and Iowa too!
Although, scientifically I guess they are different...or at least they would be to a botanist like Sara who'd call them Rosa arkansana and Rosa acicularis. Attention to details like this is probably why she got a mountain named after her 🙂
I see them everywhere here on British Columbia's southwest coast. I also remember them from the farm in Alberta where I grew up. They are an old and dear friend.
What's your favorite state or provincial flower?
Here are the lists of America's state flowers and Canada's provincial flowers (plus more).
I love the wild rose which is the provincial flower of Alberta and (which I've just learned while researching this blog) is the state flower of North Dakota and Iowa too!
Although, scientifically I guess they are different...or at least they would be to a botanist like Sara who'd call them Rosa arkansana and Rosa acicularis. Attention to details like this is probably why she got a mountain named after her 🙂
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