Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 27, 1874 |
| Died | March 17, 1956 (aged 81) |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | plant collector |
Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis (June 27, 1874 – March 17, 1956) was an American amateur plant collector active in New Mexico.[1] She discovered several plant taxa and collected some 500 plant specimens.[2]
She was born to frontier family and had little education, but in 1892 she was able to enrol at the newly opened University of New Mexico at Albuquerque in the 'preparatory department', which was to ensure students were educated equivalent to a high school degree, and in the next school year she was to be promoted to the 'normal department'. She made her first plant collection here. In May 1893, however, after only 8+1⁄2 months her father took her out of college to help the family start a new ranch in a remote location in the Sandia Mountains. In the late 1890s she made contact with Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell and Elmer Ottis Wooton, both then at the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts at Las Cruces (now on the campus of New Mexico State University) near Mesilla. She maintained correspondence with Cockerell and other notable botanists for decades afterwards.[3]