The year after Curran died, Brandegee moved to San Francisco to attend medical school at the
University of California at Berkeley, becoming the third woman to ever matriculate there. There, she studied medicinal plants and became interested in
botany. She received her
M.D. in 1878, became licensed in California, and became a member of the California State Medical Society, but chose not to practice medicine. Brandegee became a member at the
California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She collected plants throughout the state and worked in the academy's
herbarium to continue her botanical training, working alongside
Albert Kellogg. Bradengee also helped establish the California Botanical Club, a group that welcomed both professional and amateur botanists across the Pacific Coast, fostering collaboration within the botanical community. In 1891, Brandegee took a pay cut to bring
Alice Eastwood on board as a co-curator of the herbarium. Two years later when she resigned, Eastwood continued as the sole curator. Brandegee and Townshend relocated in 1894 to
San Diego. They settled in the
Bankers Hill area and established a brick herbarium and San Diego's first botanical garden on their property. Together, they collected plants throughout California, Arizona, and Mexico. After the
1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the couple moved back and donated over 76,000 specimens from their personal collection to the University of California, Berkeley. Despite the fact that she was a diabetic who suffered regular attacks, as insulin treatment had yet to be invented, Brandegee continued to collect specimens in California until her death in 1920. ==Notes==