Mapping Philadelphia’s Flora

The prowess of plant physiologist Ida Augusta Keller

The botanical community was abuzz with the news of Ida A. Keller’s grand plan for a comprehensive guide to Philadelphia-era flora. It was a massive undertaking, the scope of which was unheard of at the time, let alone undertaken by a woman.

“… she is preparing a catalogue of the plants growing within a circuit of one hundred miles around that city. When some of us were active collectors, a flora of twenty miles around any one centre would be the height of an author’s ambition,” an unknown author practically squealed in an article in the May 1897 issue of Meehans’ Monthly: A Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and Kindred Subjects. “Dr. Barton had ‘a flora of twenty miles around Philadelphia,’ but his stations are now nearly all covered by bricks and mortar. In these days of steam and electricity a hundred miles can be examined in less time and at less cost than twenty could in the beginning of the century.”

Ida was confident her guidebook wasn’t biting off more than she could chew; she knew she could produce a sprawling, exhaustive compendium. Ida’s reputation as a superior scientist had preceded her, as the article noted: “The lady is equally known as a profound botanist and successful teacher of chemistry.”