Frederica Lucy "Rica" Erickson AM, née Sandilands, (10 August 1908 – 8 September 2009) was an Australian naturalist, botanical artist, historian, author and teacher.

He returned home disabled and was unable to resume his work at the mine, consequently purchasing a block of virgin bush at Kendenup to begin farming as an orchardist.

By 1931 she was teaching at isolated one-teacher schools such as Aurora between Cranbrook and Kojonup, and later at Young's Siding near Wilson Inlet, and Denmark.

Eminent orchidologists Edith Coleman and Dr. Richard Sanders Rogers were quoted extensively in Pelloe's book, and Erickson established contact, sending them sketches and pressings of orchids found in her region.

Wilson Inlet was the site of many specimens painted in 1881 by Robert D. FitzGerald, who published the important work Australian Orchids.

Knowing she would be returning to a school posting near Wilson Inlet, Rogers instructed her on the finer details of painting the plants using pen and ink instead of pencil as she did previously.

After several years teaching on the southern coast of Western Australia, Erickson requested and received a transfer to the school at Bolgart north of Toodyay in 1934.

[6] In Bolgart she met share-farmer and future husband Sydney "Syd" Uden Erickson (1908–1987) and they were married in Fremantle in June 1936.

In 1965 the couple travelled to Europe for a holiday where Rica spent some time studying Drummond's plant specimens at the Kew Gardens herbarium in London, which were sent from Western Australia in the mid-19th century.

She became a member of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society and her writing during this period focussed on the early days of the state's European settlement, and its convict era.

In 1980 she was awarded an honorary degree of doctor of letters from the University of Western Australia for her research and work in the field of botany.