E. Lucy Braun: Trailblazing Botanist and Ecologist of Eastern US Forests

April 19, 1889

Dearest reader,

On this day, the world gained a force of nature in the form of Emma Lucy Braun — though she would insist you call her simply Lucy.

How perfectly fitting that a woman destined to revolutionize our understanding of America's eastern forests should emerge with such quiet determination, choosing the name that suited her spirit rather than accepting what convention prescribed.

Picture, if you will, young Lucy and her sister Annette, clip-clopping through Cincinnati streets in a horse-drawn streetcar, their destination the wild woods of Rose Hill.

Their mother, wise in the ways of both children and wildflowers, taught them to read the forest like a living library — each bloom a chapter, each leaf a verse in nature's endless poetry. These botanical expeditions were not mere family outings but the foundation of two remarkable scientific careers. The girls gathered specimens for their mother's herbarium, their small hands already learning the delicate art of preserving beauty for study and wonder.

What strikes me most profoundly is the partnership between these sisters — both earning their doctorates, Lucy in botany and Annette in zoology, neither choosing marriage but instead creating their own extraordinary domestic arrangement. They transformed their Mount Washington home into a temple of science: the upstairs becoming an indoor laboratory, the gardens serving as their outdoor sanctuary of discovery.

How refreshingly modern, how delightfully unconventional for the times!

Lucy's dedication was legendary. In 1950, she shattered barriers by becoming the first woman elected president of the Ecological Society of America — a quiet triumph for a woman whose expertise in deciduous forests was unmatched.

But titles and honors, impressive as they were, could never capture the essence of Lucy's true gift: her ability to make the natural world come alive for others.

Those who knew her spoke with reverence of her field work:

"To be with her in the field was something. She made everything so real, so exciting, she was just so knowledgeable."

And perhaps most telling of all:

"She loved to be out in the field; rain wouldn't stop her. She could walk forever."

At eighty years old, Lucy was still leading botanical pilgrimages through Ohio's woodlands, her enthusiasm undimmed by age or weather.

Does this not inspire us, dear gardener, to examine our own relationship with the natural world?

When did you last venture into the woods with the curiosity of a child and the knowledge of an adult?

What would Lucy Braun see in your garden that you have overlooked?

Perhaps it is time to channel her spirit — to walk a little farther, look a little closer, and let neither rain nor age dim our wonder at the green world that surrounds us.