INTRO TO

BOTANY
Definition
Fields
History
Plants
 BOTANY
The scientific study of
plants; also called plant
biology.
Importance of Botany
 Green plants form the basis for all life on
earth. Plants are the most important larger
autotrophs.
 Plants are our primary food sources all food is
dependent on plants (animal protein mostly
comes from domesticated animals that are
fed plant materials).
 Green plants form the basis for all life on
earth. Plants provide the primary source of
building materials-lumber cellulose for paper
fibers for clothing.
Importance of Botany
 The fuel we use to power our cars,
homes, and industries (natural gas,
oil, and coal) is the
product of fossilized ancient
deposits of plants.
 All medicines and drugs originally
came from plants and many still do.
History of Botany
 Early humans were hunter/gatherers, they
had no domesticated crops or animals.
 Early humans in North America (13,000-
9000 B.C.) hunted large game, such as
giant ground sloths.
 For various reasons (climate change,
overhunting of big game animals,
increased food supply), agriculture
developed around 8,000 B.C.
History of Botany
 Agriculture involves the selection of certain
plants, the propagation of those plants, and
the selection of desired traits in those plants.
 An example is the wild relative of wheat. The
wild relative of wheat in the middle east has a
seed coat that does not separate from the
grain very easily. Modern varieties of wheat
are easily separated, suggesting that the
ease of harvest, especially by manual labor,
was a trait that was selected for by early
humans.
History of Botany
 Another wheat trait that varies is shattering of
the seed head-the wild form shatters easily,
the cultivated form does not
 Early scientists Aristotle, 384 B.C., a Greek
philospher, was also a botanist. Founded the
first botanical garden of historical record.
 When he died, Theophrastus continued to
studied plants and wrote many articles
including History of Plants and Causes of
Plants.
History of Botany
 Inthe 2nd century A.D., Pliny Historia
naturalis listed known medical uses of
plants
 Dioscorides- Materia medica was the first
book with illustrations of plants.
 These books are known as herbals, as they
deal primarily with the medical use of
plants.
 During the dark ages, there was little new
knowledge added about plants.
History of Botany
 The herbals were studied by herbalists,
who developed a theory that held that a
plant part
that resembled a human part should be
used to treat associated diseases.
 The development of the microscope led
to the modern exploration of plant
structure and
function.
Fields/Disciplines of Botany
 Plant molecular biology: Structures and
functions of important biological
molecules (proteins, nucleic acids).
 Plant cell biology: Structures, functions,
and life processes of plant cells
 Plant physiology: How plants function
(photosynthesis, mineral nutrition).
 Plant genetics: Plant heredity and
variation.
Fields/Disciplines of Botany
 Plant ecology: Interrelationships among
plants, and between plants and their
environment.
 Plant taxonomy and systematics: Oldest
branch of botany. It is concerned with the
naming of species and describing the
evolutionary relationship of species to
each other.
Fields/Disciplines of Botany
 Plant geography: Study of the
geographic distribution of plants.
 Plant morphology: Form and structure
of plants.
 Cytology: Cell biology (cell structure
and function).
Plant breeding and Genomics
 Developing plants that are resistant to
pests, droughts, and pollution using plants
to produce
pharmaceutical chemicals through
genetic engineering (biopharming)
 This will be from both traditional breeding
programs where certain traits are
selected and from genetic engineering.
 Plants may be used in removing pollutants
from water and soil
Future roles of botany and
botanical scientists
 New medical uses of plants may be
developed from studying native
peoples uses of wild plants.
 Plants will be an important component
of space exploration for both oxygen
generation and food
supply.
Levels of Biological Organization
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