Margaret Ursula Mee, MBE (22 May 1909 – 30 November 1988)[1] was a British botanical artist who specialised in plants from the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest.

[4] Mee addressed the TUC in 1937, proposing the raising of the school-leaving age and was subsequently offered, but declined, a job with Ernest Bevin.

In 1950 she attended the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, where she learnt her style of illustration, and received a national diploma in painting and design in 1950.

She then became a botanical artist for São Paulo's Instituto de Botanica in 1958, exploring the rainforest and more specifically Amazonas state from 1964, painting the plants she saw, some new to science, as well as collecting some for later illustration.

In her honour, after her death the Margaret Mee Amazon Trust was founded to further education and research in Amazonian plant life and conservation.

It closed in 1996 but the fellowships it provided for Brazilian botanical students and plant illustrators who wished to study in the United Kingdom continued.

[2][6] In 1990 Mee was recognised for her environmental achievements by The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and added to its Global 500 Roll of Honour.