The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon's Life of Science and Art

by Wynne Brown

The Forgotten Botanist is the account of an extraordinary woman who, in 1870, was driven by ill health to leave the East Coast for a new life in the West—alone. At thirty-three, Sara Plummer relocated to Santa Barbara, where she taught herself botany and established the town’s first library. Ten years later she married botanist John Gill Lemmon, and together the two discovered hundreds of new plant species, many of them illustrated by Sara, an accomplished artist. Although she became an acknowledged botanical expert and lecturer, Sara’s considerable contributions to scientific knowledge were credited merely as “J.G. Lemmon & wife.”

The Forgotten Botanist chronicles Sara’s remarkable life, in which she and JG found new plant species in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Mexico and traveled throughout the Southwest with such friends as John Muir and Clara Barton. Sara also found time to work as a journalist and as an activist in women’s suffrage and forest conservation.

The Forgotten Botanist is a timeless tale about a woman who discovered who she was by leaving everything behind. Her inspiring story is one of resilience, determination, and courage—and is as relevant to our nation today as it was in her own time.

2022 Top Pick in Southwest Books of the Year 
Honorable Mention in the At-Large NFPW Communications Contest

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Nature, Science, Art, History, Womens

328 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2021

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live in Tucson, which flows from the foothills of the Catalina Mountains and its high peak, Mount Lemmon. Even as I pulled the Amazon mailer containing “The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon’s Life of Science and Art” from my mailbox, I glanced up at the Catalina’s highest rise, eponymously named for this book’s principle.
More than the biography of a remarkable botanist, this is the story of 19th century scientists adventuring into the mountains, plains, and deserts of America’s West Coast and Desert Southwest, often at great personal risk from heat, cold, illness, injury, and even Native Americans aggrieved by displacement and broken treaties. Sara was a close friend to many of these botanists, including John Muir and Asa Grey (the ‘father of American botany’), as well as Clara Barton and other notables of the time, though these connections did not shield her from a life of financial and health challenges, along with difficulties faced by women in general through history.
The author, Wynne Brown, deeply and thoroughly researched Sara, her life, and the events of her time. Additionally, she is intimately familiar with most of the geography covered in the book, having lived in and extensively traveled the back country of Arizona. When matched with her innate writing skill, Wynne Brown has produced a remarkable, readable story.
The publisher and other reviews have summarized the book elsewhere. I will only add that the writing is wonderful and reads effortlessly, factual information blending seamlessly into the overall narrative. I was left more than satisfied when I turned the final page. One certainly needs no preexisting interest of botany to enjoy Sara’s story, since it’s really a classical study of personal integrity and perseverance courageously creating a rewarding life while negotiating its challenges. I recommend “The Forgotten Botanist” highly, with no reservations. Read it; you will be richly rewarded.

[Eileen Haney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seldom consider biography exciting, and am often disappointed at the ‘look at how exploited and unappreciated we were’ tone of books about women in the past. But I loved this book. Part of the attraction is that much of it takes place in S Arizona where I live, and in mountain ranges and canyons where I camp and hike. But the best part is the description of wild areas in California, Arizona, and other western states, and their defenders, like John Muir.
And the descriptions of the activism of women at that time—voting rights, Clara Barton and educated nursing, education for women in general, the incredible importance of womens clubs, credit to women where credit is due—etc, etc.
Good biography.
It could better be named ‘The Forgotten Botanists’ plural, because her husband, an Andersonville survivor, is equally forgotten.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Appreciated learning about another forgotten female scientist, and especially relished the framework of Arizona history (cavalry, forts, miners, indigenous, etc.) where I live. (I didn't know that Sara is THE Lemmon of Tucson's Mt. Lemmon, not her husband!) It lacked the thrilling quality of Melissa Sevigny's Brave the Wild River, which I read last autumn, and which will forever be my gold standard for this genre.

[Venetia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sara Plummer Lemmon and her husband, John Gill Lemmon, botanized Southern Arizona quite a few times in the 1880’s. In the strange land of Arizona bursting with plants yet unclassified, the Lemmons, both frail in health, climbed mountains, selected specimen plants, and pressed them at night by the light of a lantern in their tent. Through the kindness of strangers, the Lemmons found lodgings at forts and at modest cabins, one of which belonged to a reclusive man, who dug a Z-shaped tunnel from his cabin through the abutting hill. This was fortuitous as the Lemmons and the recluse had to huddle in that tunnel for more than a week during imminent danger.
Author Wynne Brown quotes extensively from Sara Lemmon’s extant letters. These priceless epistles mirror another time and manner of life long gone. In her own voice, Brown lyrically describes Arizona’s iconic plants: “… long witches’ arms of the ocotillo stretched toward the sky with scarlet fingertips …”
Women in the 1880’s were still looked upon as appendages of their husbands or brothers. However, Sara, her individual work in botany, and her beautiful paintings depicting her pressed specimens became so recognized that she was honored in her own right.
“The Forgotten Botanist” is a lovely book well worth the reading. I highly recommend.
Venetia Hobson Lewis

[Karen Terrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

*The Forgotten Botanist* is a wonderful book! This biography of Sara Plummer Lemmon is carefully-researched and packed full of fascinating details about a woman who lived a most amazing life. Born in New England in 1836, Sara transplanted herself to California in her thirties (before California's statehood), married a survivor of Andersonville Prison, and, with her husband, explored and adventured in Arizona, California and Mexico, meticulously cataloguing and illustrating the flora of those regions. Sara was a part of history - she was instrumental in seeing that the California poppy became the state's flower; she helped create the first nursing school in San Francisco; and started the first public library in Santa Barbara; and she moved in a social circle that included the likes of Clara Barton and John Muir. But what the author mostly focuses on in this book is Sara's contribution to 19th century botany - and Wynne Brown does a wonderful job of conveying Sara's many achievements in this field.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in botany, history, and a good read.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell, author of *The Second Hundred Years: Further Adventures with Dad*

[Krista Marson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the definitive book about Sara Lemmon. The author did a fantastic job of getting into the head of the Victorian mindset. Is this story dry at times? Sure. But this is as exciting as it gets when it comes to writing about two sickly botanists from the 19th century, and that's the hidden beauty of this tale. Despite their poor health (the Lemmons were always sick, like modern-day hospital-level sick), this husband-and-wife duo repeatedly took on the challenge of exploring uncharted mountains. The magnitude of specimens they gathered must have been dizzying, and it serves as a poignant reminder of the invaluable beauty of nature that has been irretrievably lost. This well-written book was rich in details that transported me to a bygone era, making me both envious and relieved that I didn't have to live in such a time.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of a determined woman who never used female as an excuse for her doing.

[Mateo Bans · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book to help understand why Mount Lemmon is named like it is. Mrs. Lemmon's life is inspiring and her impact is undescribable for the South West.

[Linda Rowlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I read this for a book club and found it very interesting. I had never heard of Sara Plummer Lemmon. I now know much more about her than necessary. There was much in the life of Sara and her husband that was interesting and important. I do think Wynne Brown often provided more detail than necessary, particularly about tangential characters. Brown could not omit any tidbit once she had learned it, or at least that was how I felt. However, as I became more immersed in the book, I stopped noticing the unnecessary details.

I admire the life the Lemmons lived. Sara and husband J. G. worked closely together for nearly 30 years. They endured hardships, but they weathered them together. They contributed significantly to botanical knowledge.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was interested in reading this book primarily because I was curious to know why the Subject, Mrs. Sara Plummer Lemmon, was honored with the naming of a mountain in her name, just outside of Tucson, Arizona. Also, I was aware that a certain marigold also bore her name. What I learned is that Sara Plummer Lemmon lived a very adventurous and busy life, and one that was extraordinary for a woman of her time. She suffered ill health all her life but this did not stop her from forging on to accomplish that which she desired to set out to do. In mid-life, she did marry, and her husband, J.G. Lemmon, also a botanist, who also suffered ill healthy greatly as a result of his injuries fighting and the imprisonment he endured in Andersonville during the Civil War, made a great scientific team; their contributions to the field of botany cannot be underestimated. I was shocked to realize that I formerly had no idea of their significant contributions in this area. Their adventures into the Southwest during uneasy times gave them great stories to write about to family back east (and made for tense reading, as well). Some readers may be offended by direct quotes that speak to widespread thinking of the population at the time (late 1800's). The author acknowledges these in advance, and they are not excised from the correspondence as I think it would otherwise have been difficult to tell the tale(s). Another thing I did not know was that Sara was such an accomplished artist. Her scientific paintings and illustrations are stunning, and it is a shame that so many of them did not survive the San Francisco fire.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating biography of Sara Plummer-Lemmon. She was quite an independent woman for the time, the mid-1800s. Leaving home at age 33 in 1870 she travelled alone by ship to California from New York City. Her heath was poor and the dryer climate would allow her to live a longer life. She lead a full life, even getting married at the late age of 43. But her work is what sets her apart, an artist and botanist.

Sara is responsible for getting the California government to make the California Poppy it's state flower. Just one of her many accomplishments. Also, was the first to start a public library in Santa Barbara. Fascinating woman!

While I enjoyed the book, the narrator not so much. Her inflections in the reading were a bit off for my taste.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A conversation led me to this book, which was a fascinating read. Sara Plummer Lemmon was an intelligent, charismatic and energetic woman, who accomplished a great deal in her life. As a skilled artist, she was a full partner to her husband, a botanist named John Gill Lemmon. This account of travels with her husband in California and Arizona is an interesting story.

I was particularly interested in the story initially for personal reasons. I arrived in California in 1971, exactly one hundred years after Sara Plummer. I was married and found employment. Sara had many adventures and traveled widely in the state, establishing a library in Santa Barbara, for example, before marrying late in life. The description of the way she traveled by coastal ship, stagecoach, train are fascinating. So many changes in one hundred years. The author’s description of the bulky equipment they carried is detailed but fascinating. They had friendships with Asa Gray, John Muir and other names much better-remembered today. The herbarium they established in Oakland was a Mecca for other botanists. Tragically many of Sara Lemmon’s renditions of plants, beautifully detailed botanical illustrations were lost in the fire after the great earthquake of 1906.

Like Sara I am interested in botany and have made several trips to Arizona with experts to see some of the plants originally identified or collected by the Lemmons. I have been to Mt. Lemmon and knew it was named for the same botanist who gave “his” name to many Western plant species. I never knew that there were two Lemmons, man and wife. The title of the book, The Forgotten Botanist, is perfect!

Now in 2023, one hundred years since the death of this fascinating woman, is a perfect time to acknowledge her contribution to botanical knowledge.

[Benjamin Felser · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very thorough history of Sarah Pummer Lemmon's life, struggles and legacy as one of the foremost botanists in the west, and particularly in and around southern Arizona. Bearing the name of the tallest mountain in southern Arizona (Mount Lemmon), she is well within many archetypes of the white western "explorer," and therein lie my main frustrations with the book. B

rown took a few seemingly half-hearted attempts to include information about the native peoples of the southwest in this book, but still trends towards excusing Lemmon and others' genocidal beliefs. Brown fails to mention that Tucson at the time was still largely Mexican (and was majority Mexican until 1920,) and never once mentions any O'odham communities which are the primary ancestral land-holders of the Tucson area.

While the book is clearly a paired down version of the immense research Brown did into Lemmons life, her battles with ever present illness and misoginy, her legacy as a lifelong women's rights activist and botanist of the highest class, in negating to mention these key details, Brown persists in maintaining illusions of the white American past.

This was a valuable read to understand more about the botanical history of the west, and the colonial history of Apaches and white settlers in the late 19th century, but failed to expand the white historical narratives to include a more complete world including the roll of genocide in fomenting militant Apache resistance and the the Mexican and O'odham roots of Tucson (and LA for that matter.)

[Vera Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enthusiastic recommendation for THE FORGOTTEN BOTANIST:Sarah Plummer Lemmon’s Life of Sciemce and Art.

This lovely biography by Wynne Brown is liberally illustrated with photos from the subject’s life and reproductions of Plummer Lemmon’s delicate botanical paintings.

I can’t imagine a more appropriate pairing of author and subject. Wynne Brown has written on subjects of science and the lives of women in the west. And she has worked as a scientific illustrator. Like her subject,, she is at home both in the city and roughing it in the wilderness. Granted, Brown’s forays have not included the threat of Apache attacks when she hikes in the Catalina Mountains of Tucson. And Wynne’s adventures have not had to allow for bouts of illness like those that plagued Sarah Plummer Lemmon. Nevertheless, the reader has a knowledgeable guide to the extraordinary life of Sarah Plummer Lemmon.

If the name sounds familiar to Tucsonans, here’s a spoiler, It was Sarah Plummer Lemmon for whom the peak in the Catalina mountains was named rather than her partner in science, her husband J. G. Lemmon. Mt. Lemmon is a female! After all it could hardly be named “and wife” as many of their discoveries referred to Sarah. She also left her mark on Santa Barbara, Oakland, the American Red Cross, and International botanical science.

The book portrays an extraordinarily adventurous and scientifically valuable life. You’ll wish you had known her personally.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book at the Tucson Botanical Gardens bookstore and put it aside for several months before diving in as an assignment for my herbal book club group. It is not a quick read. It is a great title for bookstores in botanical gardens, especially those in the western U.S. where most of Sara Plummer Lemmon's scientific expeditions were recorded. For a person who moved to California in 1870 from the East Coast of the U.S. for health reasons, she was intrepid in her travels by steamer, by foot, by horseback, by wagon and by train. During her forays, she and her husband reported the existence of ferns, flowers and trees that had previously never been identified and sent their findings to major authorities in the field such as Asa Gray, America's foremost botanist in the 1870s. She also illustrated their findings. While Apaches roamed in Southern Arizona, she climbed the 9,157 foot peak which is now named "Mt. Lemmon."

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brown does bring up how often species that were named to honor Plummer lost their names with reclassification. While 'Forgotten" seems to suggest a ghostly image, a faint voice, Plummer brings us an energetic, curious, force of nature who recorded I can't remember how many specific, championed the adoption of the poppy as the California state flower and even has a mountain named after her, a mountain Plummer climbed, in 19th century clothing. This book is also the love story of the Plummers, two tough people who overcome extraordinary challenges to make their contributions. It's not hagiographic, though, Brown doesn't hold back Plummer's racist remarks about some Native Americans, views Brown explain but doesn't excuse as partly due to Plummer's times. I was surprised and pleased to find a book about a forgotten person in my local library. One reason was a fun one. It was cool to learn that Plummer has a Hawaii legacy, a grandnephew who studied botany and taught at UH.

[Bonnie Brunotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written and researched biography of the lady who, along with her husband, traveled the Southwest identifying, photographing and cataloging new species of plants found in the Southwest. Most of us never think about the history of native plants we see every day, or new ones we discover while on a hike or out in the countryside, so I found it quite interesting to learn what the early botanists went through to discover, photograph and catalog what most of us take for granted. An interesting look into the history of the Southwest as well as sharing in the fascination of new discoveries.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unknown to me but a fascinating story of botany studies and discoveries in California, Arizona and New Mexico but focused primarily in the Tucson , Arizona area where we have traveled and I can envision this area in the late 1800’s. And there is a Michigan link with her botanist husband who served in the Civil War and was a prisoner in the infamous Andersonville . I loved her life story, the connections , the drawings and her practical mindless of traveling on a tiny budget plus her dedication to her art and to botany and that she opened the first library in her home in Santa Barbara .

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best biographies I've ever read! There are excerpts from Sara's diaries and journals, and very well-written chapters to guide us down her path. The book flowed effortlessly and I never once lost interest. This is my favorite kind of book and it did not disappoint! Mt. Lemmon, outside of Tucson, was named for Sara. I lived in Tucson for half a dozen years and never knew this. It's a wonderful history of a woman who persevered through good times and bad, doing a traditional man's job and succeeding against the odds. Highly recommend.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply enjoyed this thorough and engrossing biography of the remarkable Sara Plummer Lemmon, a very early botanist who studied plant life in Arizona and Calif, often under dreadful and dangerous conditions (including Apache raids).
Mt Lemmon in Tucson is named for her, and she did quite a bit of botanizing up there, idetifyin many new species.
Engaging read if you like natural history, history of the SW and untold stories of accomplished women.

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful tribute to a woman scientist, adventurer, Unitarian and activist in civic affairs. Brown has gone into great depth to center Sara Plummer Lemmon's life within the culture and events of the time. One learns a great deal about the life of her family as well. Her relationship with her botanist partner and husband JG Lemmon sets a great example for all.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a favorite of mine. What a great way to recognize an amazing person. Amazing writing and reference to primary sources (letters, paintings, etc). Brown read hundreds of letters and managed to weave them into an easy to read and entertaining book. It made me miss my desert home and wish I could've explored with the Lemmons!

[Julianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had so much fun learning about Sara’s life and her botanizing, which I didn’t even know could be used as a verb prior to this book. A perfect read for my western USA adventure. My hikes carry a little more interest as I stop and look at the ferns and wonder if Dr. Asa Gray had a hand in approving its scientific name. Would really recommend!

[Mike Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the greatest writing, but understandable given the amount of content needed to describe this incredible woman. Splendid history and good about getting across the feeling of the times and what it was like to live their amazing lives.

[Barbara P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Book. Having lived in AZ for many years it was especially wonderful about the familiar mountains where I enjoyed hiking. Also found out how Mt. Lemon was named.
Sara Plummer Lemmon was a genius - so many skills. Even named the CA flower. Worth reading.

[Melissa Sevigny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a much-needed biography of a female botanist and her plant-collecting adventures. Meticulous research and bold writing make Sara Plummer Lemmon's life and personality vivid.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and well researched.

[Laurie Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a certified master gardener, so i enjoyed lots of good historical and botanical information, but it reads to me like a textbook. I felt like I was plodding through much of it.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story and brilliant woman. I have no idea how she and her husband managed to do so much "botanizing" with all of their health conditions but lucky for us that they did.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book in desperate need of an editor - highly repetitive with too many details that didn't add to anything.

About a third of this book could - and should - have been cut out.