Biography

Mexican scientific illustrator and painter. Rafael Montes de Oca was employed as a naturalist on the Mexican-Guatemalan Boundary Commission and, particularly interested in plants, he collected many specimens which are now deposited in the herbarium of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (MEXU). Between 1883 and 1884 he collected in Soconusco (Chiapas), Oaxaca and Puebla and the following year in Xalapa (Veracruz). A friend of the Mexican painter and naturalist J. M. Velasco the two exercised their interest in botany together. Montes de Oca created a series of plates of Mexican hummingbirds and orchids which were published posthumously in 1963.

Sources:
J. Rzedowski, G. Calderón de Rzedowski and A. Butanda, 2009, Los principales colectores de plantas activos en México entre 1700 y 1930.

Biography

Mexican scientific illustrator and painter. Rafael Montes de Oca was employed as a naturalist on the Mexican-Guatemalan Boundary Commission and, particularly interested in plants, he collected many specimens which are now deposited in the herbarium of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (MEXU). Between 1883 and 1884 he collected in Soconusco (Chiapas), Oaxaca and Puebla and the following year in Xalapa (Veracruz). A friend of the Mexican painter and naturalist J. M. Velasco the two exercised their interest in botany together. Montes de Oca created a series of plates of Mexican hummingbirds and orchids which were published posthumously in 1963.

Sources:
J. Rzedowski, G. Calderón de Rzedowski and A. Butanda, 2009, Los principales colectores de plantas activos en México entre 1700 y 1930.