Anna B. Nickels

Anna Buck Nickels (born Ohio, June 10, 1832; died Corpus Christi, Texas, January 3, 1917)[1] was an American cactus collector and florist.

[6] In 1895 Nickels discovered a new species of Cereus, now known as Grusonia bradtiana, which was named at her request after George Bradt, the editor of The Southern Florist and Gardener by botanist John Merle Coulter.

He also noted that her observations of native use of peyote as an intoxicant and a febrifuge were published by Coulter in his 1894 Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, and mentioned that she had provided plant materials for chemists, drug manufacturers, florists, and botanists for many years.

In a 1915 article on peyote Safford included a picture of Nickels and noted in the caption that she had "called attention to the narcotic properties of Lophophora, and supplied to Parke, Davis, & Co. material with which to investigate the drug.

She is one of the most widely and favorably known among all of the cactus fraternity the world over, and surely none of us can look upon the kindly features of this pioneer collector without a keen desire to grasp the hand that has been busy so many years in giving all of us pleasure.