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Jane Colden (March 27, 1724 – March 10, 1766) was an American botanist described as the "first botanist of her sex in her country" by Asa Gray in 1843. Contemporary scholarship maintains that she was the first female botanist working in America. She was regarded as a respected botanist by many prominent botanists such as: John Bartram, Peter Collinson, Alexander Garden, and Carolus Linnaeus.

Colden was born in New York City, the fifth child of Cadwallader Colden, who was a physician who trained at the University of Edinburgh and became involved in the politics and management of New York after arriving in the city, and Alice Christy Colden, referred to as "the capable instructress of of her children." She was educated at home and her father provided her with botanical training following the new system of classification developed by Carolus Linnaeus.

Between 1753 and 1758 Jane Colden catalogued New York's flora, compiling specimens and information on more than 300 species of plants from the lower Hudson River Valley, and classifying then according to the system developed by Linnaeus. She developed a technique for making ink impressions of leaves, and was also a skilled illustrator, doing ink drawings of 340. To many drawings she added pieces of folklore, suggesting medicinal uses for the plant.^[2] She went on to study the gardenia. Colden participated in the Natural History Circle where she exchanged seeds and plants with other plant collectors in the American colonies and in Europe.^[3] These rounds with the Natural History Circle encouraged Jane to become a botanist. Through her father she met and corresponded with many leading naturalists of the time, including Carolus Linnaeus. One of her descriptions of a new plant, which she herself called Fibraurea, was forwarded to Linnaeus with the suggestion that he should call it Coldenella, but Linnaeus refused and called it Helleborus (now Coptis groenlandica).^[2]

Jane was a confident botanist, and did not hesitate to disagree with other observers. She stated her opinions without fear of any repercussions.^[1] In 1756 Colden discovered a plant and named it Gardenia (which was later disallowed) after the prominent botanist Garden. In her manuscript she wrote that this plant was without an Order under the Linnaeus system.^[1] Americans did not become aware of Colden's manuscript until 75 years later when Almira Lincoln stated that another female botanist before her was the first American lady to illustrate the science of botany.^[1]

Colden's original manuscript describing the flora of New York is held in the British Museum.

A plant sanctuary in her honor was established in the late 1990s at Knox's Headquarters State Historic Site in New Windsor, near where she lived and worked.

Jane married Scottish widower Dr. William Farquhar on March 12, 1759. She died in childbirth only seven years later at the age of 41; the child also died in the same year. There is no evidence that she continued her botanical work after her marriage.

• Bonta, Marcia Myers. 1991. --Women in the Field: America's pioneering women nauturalists.-- College Station: Texas A & M University Press.
• Shapiro, B. 2000. Colden, Jane. American National Biography Online
• Smith, B . S. 1988. Jane Colden (1724–1766) and her manuscript. American Journal of Botany 75:1090-1096
• Botanic Manuscript of Jane Colden - First Woman Botanist of Colonial America, Published by the Garden Club of Orange and Dutchess Counties, New York. Produced by Chanticleer Press, New York. April 1963. Includes reproduction of Manuscript in the British Museum.

Category:1724 births Category:1766 deaths Category:Women botanists Category:American botanists Category:People from Orange County, New York Category:American women scientists