Economic Botany

Biology 460
Dr. Michael Simpson
Department of Biology
San Diego State University
 What is a Economic Botany?
Economic:
1. of or relating to the production, development,
and management of material wealth, as of a
country, business enterprise,
or household.

2. of or relating to the practical necessities of life;

material.
 What is Botany?

Traditionally, study of “plants” and "fungi"

(and formerly bacteria):
organisms with: cell walls & spores.
endosymbiosis:
= ancestral engulfment
of a bacterium by a
eukaryotic cell, followed
by co-dependency
mitochondrion -resembles bacterium:
~ same size
circular DNA
replicates by fission
similar size ribosomes (70 S)
chloroplast -resembles photosynthetic bacterium:
- all features of mitochondria
+ photosynthetic membranes (thylakoids)

thylakoids
 “Botany” - study of:

Photosynthetic eukaryotes:
Euglenids
Dinoflagellates
Brown Plants (incl. Brown algae, diatoms)
Red algae
Green Plants (including Land Plants)
Fungi
Water Molds (Oomycota)
 What is a plant?
Can be answered in 2 ways

1) By Characteristics

Photosynthetic

Cell walls

Spores

Sedentary

2) By Phylogenetic relationships
 Green Plants - Chlorobionta
Chloroplasts ("green"):
 chlorophyll a & b
 storage product starch
 thylakoids in stacks: grana

Cell walls with cellulose:

(polymer of glucose units: beta-1,4-glucopyranosides;
starch is alpha-1,4-glucopyranosides)
 cell wall

chloroplasts

Elodea
Green Plant chloroplast
thylakoids in grana
grana
starch:
alpha form
of glucose
cellulose:
beta form
of glucose
Cellulosic cell wall
made of cellulose microfibrils
 “Green Algae”

- A paraphyletic group

- Very diverse in morphology & life cycle

“Green Algae”

- unicellular
- multicellular
- colonial
- filamentous
- thalloid
cellulose
"Plants"
- generally equated with
Land Plants (embyrophytes)
cellulose
Liverworts, Hornworts, Mosses
cellulose
 Vascular Plants
Lycopods / Lycophytes

Isoetes orcuttii

Selaginella apoda Selaginella bigelovii

Vascular Plants
Equisetophytes: Equisetum

Equisetum arvense
Common Horsetail
Equisetum spp.
Scouring-Rush
 Vascular Plants “Ferns”

Ophioglossum californicum Polypodium californicum

Calif. Adder’s Tongue California Polypody
Dryopteris arguta
Coastal Wood Fern
 , wood

cellulose
Seed Plants
Cycads Ginkgo

Cycas circinalis Ginkgo biloba

Conifers

Abies concolor Pinus torreyana Cupressus forbesii

White Fir Torrey Pine Tecate Cypress
Gnetales

Welwitschia mirabilis

Ephedra spp. Mormon Tea

 , wood

cellulose
ANGIOSPERMS - Flowering Pls
 Monocots 1 cotyledon

coleoptile 1 cotyledon
epicotyl
epicotyl
hypocotyl
embryo
radicle
radicle
coleorhiza

MONOCOTS

1 cotyledon

parallel
venation
floral parts in 3’s
(often)
 Eudicots

seed coat
endosperm

2 cotyledons

{
epicotyl
embryo hypocotyl

radicle

NON-MONOCOT

2 cotyledons
net venation
floral parts in 4’s or 5’s
(often)
Why study plants? Why important?
Oxygen
Primary producers
Economically important to humans
agricultural plants
flavoring plants
euphoric/hallucinogenic plants
fiber, wood plants
medicinal plants