A biographical essay by Leila McNeill in Smithsonian Magazine profiles Dr. Janaki Ammal, a botanist from India who was the first woman from that country to earn a doctorate in the US in this discipline. The title of the piece refers to Ammal’s role in preserving a biologically diverse area in India that was threated with destruction from industrial development. Ammal worked on both commercial applications of plant biology but also on the study and preservation of India’s indigenous plant life. McNeill describes the efforts by Ammal to emphasize
“the significance of tribal cultures and their cultivation of native plants, and the importance of Indian matrilineal traditions that valued women as managers of property, including a family’s plants” (McNeill, 2019, para. 18).
Reference
McNeill, L. (2019, July 31). The Pioneering Female Botanist Who Sweetened a Nation and Saved a Valley. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/pioneering-female-botanist-who-sweetened-nation-and-saved-valley-180972765
(Permanent link: https://web.archive.org/web/20190801183330/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/pioneering-female-botanist-who-sweetened-nation-and-saved-valley-180972765/)