botany

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Written by William Campbell Steere, Michael J. Pelczar•All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Sep 30, 2024 • Article History

Key People:: Charles Darwin; Katherine Oppenheimer; Robin Wall Kimmerer; Jeanne Baret; Carolus Linnaeus

Related Topics:: palynology; dendrology; bryology; pteridology; plant pathology

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For convenience, but not on any mutually exclusive basis, several major areas or approaches are recognized commonly as disciplines of botany. These are morphology, physiology, ecology, and systematics.

Morphology

leaf structureStructures of a leaf. The epidermis is often covered with a waxy protective cuticle that helps prevent water loss from inside the leaf. Oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water enter and exit the leaf through pores (stomata) scattered mostly along the lower epidermis. The stomata are opened and closed by the contraction and expansion of surrounding guard cells. The vascular, or conducting, tissues are known as xylem and phloem; water and minerals travel up to the leaves from the roots through the xylem, and sugars made by photosynthesis are transported to other parts of the plant through the phloem. Photosynthesis occurs within the chloroplast-containing mesophyll layer.

Morphology deals with the structure and form of plants and includes such subdivisions as: cytology, the study of the cell; histology, the study of tissues; anatomy, the study of the organization of tissues into the organs of the plant; reproductive morphology, the study of life cycles; and experimental morphology, or morphogenesis, the study of development.

Physiology

Physiology deals with the functions of plants. Its development as a subdiscipline has been closely interwoven with the development of other aspects of botany, especially morphology. In fact, structure and function are sometimes so closely related that it is impossible to consider one independently of the other. The study of function is indispensable for the interpretation of the incredibly diverse nature of plant structures. In other words, around the functions of the plant, structure and form have evolved. Physiology also blends imperceptibly into the fields of biochemistry and biophysics, as the research methods of these fields are used to solve problems in plant physiology.

Ecology

primary ecological successionPrimary succession begins in barren areas, such as on bare rock exposed by a retreating glacier. The first inhabitants are lichens, mosses, fungi, or microorganisms—those that can survive in such an environment. Over hundreds of years these “pioneer species” convert the rock into soil that can support simple plants such as grasses. These grasses further modify the soil, which is then colonized by other types of plants. Each successive stage modifies the habitat by altering the amount of shade and the composition of the soil. The final stage of succession is a climax community, which is a very stable stage that can endure for hundreds of years.

Ecology deals with the mutual relationships and interactions between organisms and their physical environment. The physical factors of the atmosphere, the climate, and the soil affect the physiological functions of the plant in all its manifestations, so that, to a large degree, plant ecology is a phase of plant physiology under natural and uncontrolled conditions. Plants are intensely sensitive to the forces of the environment, and both their association into communities and their geographical distribution are determined largely by the character of climate and soil. Moreover, the pressures of the environment and of organisms upon each other are potent forces, which lead to new species and the continuing evolution of larger groups. Ecology also investigates the competitive or mutualistic relationships that occur at different levels of ecosystem composition, such as those between individuals, populations, or communities. Plant-animal interactions, such as those between plants and their herbivores or pollinators, are also an important area of study.

Systematics

Systematics deals with the identification and ranking of all plants. It includes classification and nomenclature (naming) and enables the botanist to comprehend the broad range of plant diversity and evolution.

Other subdisciplines

In addition to the major subdisciplines, several specialized branches of botany have developed as a matter of custom or convenience. Among them are bacteriology, the study of bacteria; mycology, the study of fungi; phycology, the study of algae; bryology, the study of mosses and liverworts; pteridology, the study of ferns and their relatives; and paleobotany, the study of fossil plants. Palynology is the study of modern and fossil pollen and spores, with particular reference to their identification; plant pathology deals with the diseases of plants; economic botany deals with plants of practical use to humankind; and ethnobotany covers the traditional use of plants by local peoples, now and in the distant past.

Botany also relates to other scientific disciplines in many ways, especially to zoology, medicine, microbiology, agriculture, chemistry, forestry, and horticulture, and specialized areas of botanical information may relate closely to such humanistic fields as art, literature, history, religion, archaeology, sociology, and psychology.

Fundamentally, botany remains a pure science, including any research into the life of plants and limited only by humanity’s technical means of satisfying curiosity. It has often been considered an important part of a liberal education, not only because it is necessary for an understanding of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, pharmacology, and other applied arts and sciences but also because an understanding of plant life is related to life in general.

Because humanity has always been dependent upon plants and surrounded by them, plants are woven into designs, into the ornamentation of life, even into religious symbolism. A Persian carpet and a bedspread from a New England loom both employ conventional designs derived from the forms of flowers. Medieval painters and great masters of the Renaissance represented various revered figures surrounded by roses, lilies, violets, and other flowers, which symbolized chastity, martyrdom, humility, and other Christian attributes.