The Wild Woman who entered a burning building to save plants

By Jacqui Nelson

Prepare to get flowery or...plant-y! I love flowers, plants, trees, and— Well, maybe I should just say, I love botany. And I also love reading about real-life Wild Women of the West who pursued their love for botany ❤️

Alice Eastwood was one of those women. She lived in Canada, Colorado, and California...traveled from Alaska to Arizona to collect plants...and even entered a burning building to rescue her collection.

~ * ~

Alice Eastwood  
( born 1859 in Toronto, Canada ) 

Alice in 1910

In 1873, Alice moved with her family from Canada to Denver, Colorado. Six years later, she graduated as valedictorian from Shawa Convent Catholic High School. For the next ten years, she taught students at Shawa instead of pursuing her own college education. During this time, she taught herself botany by reading publications such as Grey's Manual and The Flora of Colorado.

In 1887, her growing reputation in botany led to her being suggested as the only person in Denver who could competently guide Alfred Russel Wallace up Grays Peak to collect alpine flowers. Wallace was a seasoned explorer and talented naturalist from England who independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection and then jointly published it with Charles Darwin. 

Alice was a publishing powerhouse in her own right. She published over 310 scientific articles and authored 395 plant species names (the fourth-highest number of such names authored by any female scientist). Seventeen species are named for her as well as the genera Eastwoodia (in the sunflower family) and Aliciella (in the phlox family).

In San Francisco, Alice not only built the California Academy of Sciences’ botanical collection but saved it during the 1906 earthquake. Ignoring her era’s curatorial conventions, she stored her specimens by type and not scattered throughout the main collection. This system allowed her to enter a burning building and swiftly retrieve nearly 1500 of her specimens.

California Academy of Sciences in 2008

Alice continuously added to the California Academy of Sciences’ collection by going on numerous plant collecting vacations in Alaska, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho. From 1891 to 1894, she worked at the Academy as an assistant and then a joint curator. After 1894 and until her retirement in 1949, she served as its Head of the Department of Botany.

~ * ~

Wow! That’s a busy life. Tending the germanium “jungle” on my balcony (and strolling by the beautiful gardens in my neighborhood) is as much as I feel I’m capable of doing at the moment. But if I could go on a plant exploration trip with someone like Alice, I’d jump at the chance.

How about you? 
Would you venture far from home to collect plants? 

And if you know a present-day botanist like Alice (who likes to guide people to see plants), then let me know. One day soon, I'm hoping to go beyond my germanium “jungle” and explore the vast world of plants...like a Wild Woman of the West 🤠

~ * ~

Read more of my Cowboy Kisses Wild Women blog posts 

Join me on… 

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Pinterest, my Website,
my Cowboy Kisses page 

Follow me on… 

Amazon, Bookbub, Goodreads

Don't forget to download my FREE story Rescuing Raven (Raven & Charlie's story in Deadwood 1876) 

The Wild Woman who made History with a Mountain, a Flower & More

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...

~ * ~

Sara Plummer Lemmon 
( born 1836 in New Gloucester, Maine ) 

Sara in 1865

Sara was educated at the Female College of Worcester in Massachusetts, taught art in New York City, and served as a nurse during the Civil War.

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.

Sara & John camping during their honeymoon on Mount Lemmon
(photo LocalWiki Contributors)

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 🙂

~ * ~

Read more of my Cowboy Kisses Wild Women blog posts 

Join me on… 

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Pinterest, my Website,
my Cowboy Kisses page 

Follow me on… 

Amazon, Bookbub, Goodreads

Don't forget to download my FREE story Rescuing Raven (Raven & Charlie's story in Deadwood 1876)