Essential Information & explanations, latest texts & monographs on
Botany.
Botany
Botany (sometimes referred to as plant sciences or plant biology) is the branch of biology concerned with the scientific study of plants. It covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study the growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, and evolution of plant life.
Nearly all the food we eat comes (directly and indirectly) from plants, like this American long grain rice. This one of the many reasons that botany is an important topic of study and research.
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1 Fields of study in botany
2 "Model" plants
3 History
4 See also
5 External links
Fields of study in botany
As with other life forms in biology, plant life can be studied at a variety of levels, from the molecular, genetic and biochemical level through to organelles (e.g. mitochondria, chloroplasts and plastids), cells, tissues, organs and the biodiversity of whole plants. At the top end of this scale, plants can be studied in populations, communities and ecosystems (as in ecology). At each of these levels a botanist might be concerned with the classification (taxonomy), structure (anatomy), or function (physiology) of plant life.
Historically, botanists studied all organisms that were not generally regarded as animal. Some of these "plant-like" or non-animal organisms include: fungi (studied in mycology); bacteria and viruses (studied in microbiology); and algae (studied in phycology). Organisms in these three groups—most algae, fungi, and microbes—are no longer considered to be in the Plant Kingdom. However, attention is still given to them by botanists; and bacteria, fungi, and algae are usually covered, somewhat superficially, in introductory Botany courses.
"Model" plants
The mustard weed, Arabidopsis thaliana, was one of the first plant model organisms to have its genome sequenced. Other more commercially important plants like rice, wheat , maize and soybean are also having their genomes sequenced, although these are more challenging because they are polyploid. The "Green Yeast" Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (a single-celled, green alga) is another plant model organism.
History
Among the earliest of botanical works, written around 300 BC, are two large treatises by Theophrastus: On the History of Plants (Historia Plantarum) and On the Causes of Plants. Together these books constitute the most important contribution to botanical science during antiquity and on into the Middle Ages. The Roman medical writer, Dioscorides, provides important evidence on Greek and Roman knowledge of officinal plants.
In 1665, using an early microscope, Robert Hooke discovered cells in cork; a short time later in living plant tissue. Upon viewing a thin slice of cork, he wrote:
...I could exceedingly plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honeycomb...these pores or cells , were not very deep, but consisted of a great many little boxes...
The German Leonhart Fuchs, the Swiss Conrad Gessner, and the British authors Nicholas Culpeper and John Gerard, published herbals that gave information on the officinal uses of plants.
See also
External links
General subfields within biology
Anatomy | Botany | Ecology | Evolutionary biology | Genetics | Marine biology | Human biology | Cell biology | Microbiology | Molecular biology | Biochemistry | Origin of life | Paleontology | Physiology | Taxonomy | Xenobiology | Zoology | Bioinformatics
The above article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (Llewellyn's Sourcebook Series) by Scott Cunningham
American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants by Christopher Brickell
Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary by James G. Harris
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins
Jack's Garden by Henry Cole
Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska by Jim Pojar
The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana by Jack Herer
The A-Z Guide to Drug-Herb and Vitamin Interactions by D.C. Jr. Schuyler W. Lininger
The Nursing Mother's Herbal (The Human Body Library) by Sheila Humphrey
Plants on the Trail with Lewis and Clark by William Munoz
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by Steve Brill
The Healing Power of Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbs by Reader's Digest
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Recent Botany related patents
From USPTO:
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6713666: Invertase inhibitors and methods of use
6713665: Maize NPR1 promoter and methods of use in plant gene expression
6709865: Sunflower LOX polynucleotides and related compositions
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6706951: Maize nucleic acid encoding a GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase
6706949: RuvB orthologues and uses thereof
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6689939: GTP binding stress-related proteins and methods of use in plants
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from PUBMED
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Zhong Yao Cai. 2002 Mar;25(3):211-3. Review. Chinese.
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Zhong Yao Cai. 2002 Mar;25(3):206-8. Review. Chinese.
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A kind of Mozart of medicine: Joseph Plenck (1735-1807).
Acta Dermatovenerol Croat. 2003 Dec;11(4):207-11.
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