Pinguicula grandiflora commonly known as a Butterwort

Botany, plant science(s), or plant biology (from Ancient Greek βοτάνη botane, "pasture, grass, or fodder" and that from βόσκειν boskein, "to feed or to graze"), a discipline of biology, is the science of plant life.^[1][2][3] Traditionally, the science included the study of fungi, algae, and viruses.

Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines including structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, chemical properties, and evolutionary relationships among taxonomic groups. Botany began with early human efforts to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making it one of the oldest branches of science. Nowadays, botanists study about 400,000 species of living organisms.

The beginnings of modern-style classification systems can be traced to the 1500s-1600s when several attempts were made to scientifically classify plants. In the 19th and 20th centuries, major new techniques were developed for studying plants, including microscopy, chromosome counting, and analysis of plant chemistry. In the last two decades of the 20th century, DNA was used to more accurately classify plants.

Botanical research focuses on plant population groups, evolution, physiology, structure, and systematics. Subdisciplines of botany include agronomy, forestry, horticulture, and paleobotany. Key scientists in the history of botany include Theophrastus, Ibn al-Baitar, Carl Linnaeus, Gregor Johann Mendel, and Norman Borlaug.

History[link]

The traditional tools of a botanist

Early botany[link]

The history of botany begins with ancient writings on, and classifications of, plants. Such writings are found in several early cultures. Examples of early botanical works have been found in ancient Indian sacred texts, ancient Zoroastrian writings,^[4] and ancient Chinese works.

Theophrastus (c. 371–287 BC) has been frequently referred to as the ”father of botany”.^[5] The Greco-Roman world produced a number of botanical works including Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum and Dioscorides' De Materia Medica from the first century.^[6]

Works from the medieval Muslim world included Ibn Wahshiyya's Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī's (828-896) the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassal's The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar (d. 1248) also wrote on botany.^[7][8][9]

Early modern botany[link]

Further information: History of taxonomy

Crantz's Classis cruciformium..., 1769

German physician Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566) was one of "the three founding fathers of botany", along with Otto Brunfels (1489–1534) and Hieronymus Bock (1498–1554) (also called Hieronymus Tragus).^[10][11]

Valerius Cordus (1515–1544) authored a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546.^[12] Conrad von Gesner (1516–1565) and Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654) also published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants. Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) was considered the "father of natural history", which included the study of plants. In 1665, using an early microscope, Robert Hooke discovered cells, a term he coined, in cork, and a short time later in living plant tissue.^[13]

During the 18th century, systems of classification were developed that are comparable to diagnostic keys, where taxa are artificially grouped in pairs. The sequence of the taxa in keys is often unrelated to their natural or phyletic groupings.^[14] By the 18th century an increasing number of new plants had arrived in Europe from newly discovered countries and the European colonies worldwide and a larger number of plants became available for study. Botanical guides from this time were sparsely illustrated.^[15] In 1754 Carl von Linné (Carl Linnaeus) divided the plant Kingdom into 25 classes in a taxonomy with a standardized binomial naming system for animal and plant species. He used a two-part naming scheme where the first name represented the genus and the second the species.^[16] One of Linnaeus' classifications, the Cryptogamia, included all plants with concealed reproductive parts (mosses, liverworts and ferns), and algae and fungi.^[17]

The increased knowledge of anatomy, morphology and life cycles, led to the realization that there were more natural affinities between plants than the sexual system of Linnaeus indicated. Adanson (1763), de Jussieu (1789), and Candolle (1819) all proposed various alternative natural systems that were widely followed. The ideas of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution required adaptations to the Candollean system, which started the studies on evolutionary relationships and phylogenetic classifications of plants.^[18][19]

Botany was greatly stimulated by the appearance of the first "modern" text book, Matthias Schleiden's Grundzuge der Wissenschaftlichen, published in English in 1849 as Principles of Scientific Botany.^[20] Carl Willdenow examined the connection between seed dispersal and distribution, the nature of plant associations, and the impact of geological history. The cell nucleus was discovered by Robert Brown in 1831.^[21]

Modern botany[link]

A considerable amount of new knowledge today is being generated from studying model plants like Arabidopsis thaliana. This weedy species in the mustard family was one of the first plants to have its genome sequenced. The sequencing of the rice (Oryza sativa) genome, its relatively small genome, and a large international research community have made rice an important cereal/grass/monocot model.^[22] Another grass species, Brachypodium distachyon is also an experimental model for understanding genetic, cellular and molecular biology.^[23] Other commercially important staple foods like wheat, maize, barley, rye, pearl millet and soybean are also having their genomes sequenced. Some of these are challenging to sequence because they have more than two haploid (n) sets of chromosomes, a condition known as polyploidy, common in the plant kingdom. A green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, is a model organism that has proven important in advancing knowledge of cell biology.^[24]

In 1998 the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group published a phylogeny of flowering plants based on an analysis of DNA sequences from most families of flowering plants. As a result of this work, many of the questions such as which families represent the earliest branches of angiosperms have now been answered. Investigating how plant species are related to each other allows botanists to better understand the process of evolution in plants.^[25] Despite the study of model plants and increasing use of DNA evidence, there is ongoing work and discussion among taxonomists about how best to classify plants into various taxa.^[26]

Scope and importance of botany[link]

Hibiscus

Molecular, genetic and biochemical level through organelles, cells, tissues, organs, individuals, plant populations, and communities of plants are all aspects of plant life that are studied. At each of these levels a botanist might be concerned with the classification (taxonomy), structure (anatomy and morphology), or function (physiology) of plant life.^[27]

Historically, all living things were grouped as either animals or plants,^[28] and botany covered the study of all organisms not considered to be animals. Now, plants are considered to be organisms that obtain their energy from sunlight by means of photosynthesis and some closely related, chlorophyll-free parasitic plants. Other organisms previously included in the field of botany include bacteria, (studied in bacteriology), fungi, (mycology) including lichen-forming fungi (lichenology), non-chlorophyte algae (phycology) and viruses (virology). However, attention is still given to these groups by botanists, and fungi (including lichens), and photosynthetic protists are usually covered in introductory botany courses.^[29][30]

The study of plants is vital because they are a fundamental part of life on Earth, which generates the oxygen and food that allow humans and other life forms to exist. Through photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that in large amounts can affect global climate. Just as importantly for us, plants release oxygen into the atmosphere during photosynthesis. Additionally, they prevent soil erosion and are influential in the water cycle.^[31] Plants are crucial to the future of human society as they provide food, oxygen, medicine, and products for people; as well as creating and preserving soil.^[32] Paleobotanists study ancient plants in the fossil record. It is believed that early in the Earth's history, the evolution of photosynthetic plants altered the global atmosphere of the earth, changing the ancient atmosphere by oxidation.^[33]

Human nutrition[link]

Nearly all the food we eat comes (directly and indirectly) from plants, such as this American long grain rice

Virtually all foods come either directly from plants, or indirectly from animals that eat plants.^[34] Plants are the fundamental base of nearly all food chains because they use the energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil and atmosphere, converting them into a form that can be consumed and utilized by animals; this is what ecologists call the first trophic level.^[35] Botanists also study how plants produce food we can eat and how to increase yields and therefore their work is important in mankind's ability to feed the world and provide food security for future generations, for example, through plant breeding.^[36] Botanists also study weeds, plants which are considered to be a nuisance in a particular location. Weeds are a considerable problem in agriculture, and botany provides some of the basic science used to understand how to minimize 'weed' impact in agriculture and native ecosystems.^[37] Ethnobotany is the study of the relationships between plants and people. When this kind of study is turned to the investigation of plant-people relationships in past times, it is referred to as archaeobotany or paleoethnobotany.^[38]

Fundamental life processes[link]

Botanical research has long had relevance to the understanding of fundamental biological processes other than just botany. Fundamental life processes such as cell division and protein synthesis can be studied using plants without the moral issues that come with conducting studies upon animals or humans. Gregor Mendel discovered the genetic laws of inheritance in this fashion by studying Pisum sativum (pea) inherited traits such as shape. What Mendel learned from studying plants has had far reaching benefits outside of botany. Similarly, 'jumping genes' were discovered by Barbara McClintock while she was studying maize.^[39]

Medicine and materials[link]

Many medicinal and recreational drugs, like tetrahydrocannabinol, caffeine, and nicotine come directly from the plant kingdom. Others are simple derivatives of botanical natural products; for example, aspirin is based on the pain killer salicylic acid which originally came from the bark of willow trees. As well, the narcotic analgesics such as morphine are derived from the opium poppy.^[40] There may be many novel cures for diseases provided by plants, waiting to be discovered. Popular stimulants like coffee, chocolate, tobacco, and tea also come from plants. Most alcoholic beverages come from fermenting plants such as barley (beer), rice (sake) and grapes (wine).^[41]

Hemp, cotton, wood, paper, linen, vegetable oils, some types of rope, and rubber are examples of materials made from plants. Silk can only be made by using the mulberry plant. Sugarcane, rapeseed, soy are some of the plants with a highly fermentable sugar or oil content which have recently been put to use as sources of biofuels, which are important alternatives to fossil fuels (see biodiesel).^[42]

Environmental changes[link]

In many different ways, plants can act a little like the 'miners' canary', an early warning system alerting us to important changes in our environment. Plants respond to and provide understanding of changes in the environment:^[43]

• Plant systematics and taxonomy are essential to understanding habitat destruction and species extinction.
• Ultraviolet radiation causes changes in plants which help in studying problems like ozone depletion.
• Analyzing pollen found in fossils and sediment from thousands or millions of years ago allows reconstruction of past climates and the prediction of future ones. This is essential to climate change research.
• Study of plant life cycles is an important part of phenology, which is used in climate-change research.

Ecology[link]

The biology of a population is greater than the collective biologies of its individuals. Multiple members of the same species in close proximity constitute a population. Different populations in proximity constitute a community, which in conjunction with its nonliving environment constitute an ecosystem. The relation of each organism to all other organisms and factors in its habitat and environment make up its ecology. This includes structure, genetics and mutations, metabolism, diversity, fitness, adaptation, climate, water, and soil condition. The conditions that constitute an organisms life cycle is its habitat.^[44] Both negative and beneficial interactions with other organisms are parts of a plant's ecology. Herbivores eat plants, but plants can also defend themselves. Some other organisms form beneficial relationships with plants, called mutualisms, for example with mycorrhizal fungi that provide nutrients, and honey bees that pollinate flowers. A biome is a large part of the earth that has very similar abiotic and biotic factors, climate, and geography, creating a typical ecosystem over that area that is characterized by its dominant plants. Examples include tundra and tropical rainforest.^[45]

Evolution[link]

A Punnett square depicting a cross between two pea plants heterozygous for purple (B) and white (b) blossoms

DNA provides the information for a plant's structure, metabolism, and biology. Genetics is the science of inheritance and the gene is its chemical unit. The same basic laws of genetics apply to both plants and animals. In sexual reproduction, offspring are often more fit than either parent since the stronger genes tend to be passed on to the next generation.^[46] Mutations and natural selection result in a species acquiring new traits and eventually evolving into one or more new species. Population genetics is the study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. Changes can also be caused by natural events such as a large meteor hitting Earth and selective breeding (artificial selection) of plants by humans for specific traits.^[47]

Since the mid-20th century, there has been considerable debate over how the earliest forms of life evolved and how to classify them, especially at the kingdom and domain levels and organisms that are or have been considered bacteria. For example, the three-domain method separates Archaea and Bacteria, previously grouped into the single kingdom Monera (bacteria). In this system Eukaryota (nuclei-bearing eukaryotes). Archaea was separated because it was shown to have a completely separate evolutionary history. However, Thomas Cavalier-Smith rejects the three-domain system and places the Archea as a subkingdom of Bacteria. Cyanobacteria were once believed to be related to algae and hence studied by botanists. Even now they are studied by both botanists and bacteriologists.^{[48][49][50][51]} Similarly, the Fungi (or Myceteae) were once considered plants but there is now uncertainty about how to classify them.^[52]

The various divisions of algae are also taxonomically problematic as some are more clearly linked to plants than others. Their many differences in features such as biochemistry, pigmentation, and nutrient reserves show that they diverged very early in evolutionary time. The division Chlorophyta (green algae) is considered the ancestor of true plants. ^[53]

Nonvascular plants are embryophytes that do not have vascular tissue: mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. Many plants that are called "moss" are not true mosses. For example, Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is actually in the Bromeliaceae (pineapple) family. Nonvascular plants do not have xylem nor phloem.^[54] After the development of xylem and phloem, vascualar plants developed along two lines: cryptogams which reproduce by spores and which developed first, and spermatophytes, which reproduce by seed.^[55] The spermatophytes further developed into gymnosperms, plants that produce seeds not enclosed in an ovary. Modern gymnosperms include conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and Gnetales. Gymnosperms are the ancestors of the Angiosperms or flowering plants which produce a seed encased in a structure such as a carpel.^[56][57]

Physiology[link]

Five key areas of study within plant physiology.

Plant physiology encompasses all the internal chemical and physical activities of plants associated with life.^[58] Sunlight, either through photosynthesis or cellular respiration, is the basis of all life. Photoautotrophs gather energy directly from sunlight. This includes all green plants, cyanobacteria and other bacteria that can photosynthesize. Heterotrophs take in organic molecules and respire them. This includes all animals, all fungi, all completely parasitic plants, and non-photosynthetic bacteria.^[59] Respiration is the oxidation of carbon whereby it is broken down into simpler structures; essentially the opposite of photosynthesis.^[60]

Transport processes are those by which molecules are moved within the organism, such as: membranes transporting material across themselves and enzymes moving electrons. This is how minerals and water get from roots to other parts of the plant. Diffusion, osmosis, and active transport are different ways transport can occur.^[61] Examples of minerals that plants need are: nitrogen, phosphorus, phosphate, calcium, magnesium, and sulphur. Chemicals from the air, soil, and water in combination with sunlight form the basis of plant metabolism. Most of these elements come from minerals in a process called mineral nutrition.^[62] Few plants live in stable unchanging environments. Most plants must adapt to a variety of environmental factors, including changes in temperature, light and moisture. The better a plant can cope with these changing conditions, the more likely it can survive over both the short and long term as well as over a wider geographic range.^[63]

Structure[link]

Roots, stems, leaves, and flowers of Lilium superbum.

Plant anatomy is the study of the internal cells and tissues of a plant; whereas plant morphology is the study of their general and external form.^[64]

Understanding the structure and function of cells is fundamental to all of the biological sciences. All organisms have cells, the cell types are unique and their nuclei store most of the DNA.^[65] Cell biology studies their structural and physiological properties. This includes responses to stimuli, reproduction, and development on the macroscopic scale, microscopic scale, and molecular level. The similarities and differences between the function of a cell are quite varied.^[66] Plant cells are eukaryotic, ie, have a membrane-encased nucleus that carries genetic material.^[67] With rare exceptions, plant cells also have a central vacuole, cytoplasm, cytosol, dictyosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, microbodies, microfilaments, microtubules, mitochondria, plasma membrane, plastids, protoplasm, ribosomes, storage products, and a cell wall.^[68] Cells divide by processes known as karyokinesis and cytokinesis.^[69]

The body of a plant contains three basic parts: roots, stems, and leaves. Roots anchor it to the ground, gather water and mineral nutrients from the soil, and produce hormones. Roots which spread out close to the surface, such as those of willows, can produce shoots and ultimately new plants. Fleshy taproots, such as those of beets and carrots, store carbohydrates.^[70] Stems provide support to the leaves and store nutrients. Leaves gather sunlight and begin photosynthesis.^[71] Large, flat, flexible, green leaves are called foliage leaves.^[72] Gymnosperms are seed-producing plants which have open seeds, such as conifers, cycads, Gingko, and gnetophyta.^[73] Angiosperms are seed-producing plants that produce flowers, having enclosed seeds. Some of the gymnosperms became the ancestors of the angiosperms.^[56] Woody plants, such as azaleas and oaks, undergo a secondary growth phase resulting in two additional types of tissues: wood (secondary xylem) and bark (secondary phloem and cork). All gymnosperms and many angiosperms are woody plants.^[74] Some plants reproduce sexually, some asexually, and some via both means.^[75]

Systematics[link]

Linnaeus's table of the Plant Kingdom ("Regnum Vegetabile") from the first edition of Systema Naturae (1735).

Scientific classification in botany is a method by which botanists group and categorize organisms by biological type, such as genus or species. Biological classification is a form of scientific taxonomy. Modern taxonomy is rooted in the work of Carolus Linnaeus, who grouped species according to shared physical characteristics. These groupings have since been revised to improve consistency with the Darwinian principle of common descent. While scientists do not always agree on how to classify organisms, molecular phylogenetics, which uses DNA sequences as data, has driven many recent revisions along more efficient, evolutionary lines and is likely to continue to do so. Botanical classification belongs to the science of plant systematics. The dominant classification system is called the Linnaean taxonomy. It includes ranks and binomial nomenclature. The classification, taxonomy, and nomenclature of botanical organisms is administered by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN).^[76][77]

The five-kingdom system has largely been superseded by modern alternative classification systems. Textbooks generally begin with the three-domain system: Archaea (originally Archaebacteria); Bacteria (originally Eubacteria); Eukaryota (including protists, fungi, plants, and animals). These domains reflect whether the cells have nuclei or not, as well as differences in the chemical composition of the cell exteriors and ribosomes.^[77][78]

Further, each kingdom is broken down recursively until each species is separately classified. The order is: Domain; Kingdom; Phylum; Class; Order; Family; Genus; Species. The scientific name of an organism is generated from its genus and species, resulting in a single world-wide name for each organism.^[77] For example, the Tiger Lily is listed as Lilium columbianum. Lilium is the genus, and columbianum the specific epithet. When writing the scientific name of an organism, it is proper to capitalize the first letter in the genus and put all of the specific epithet in lowercase. Additionally, the entire term is ordinarily italicized or underlined. Phylogenetics is the study of similarities among different species.^[77][79][80]

Subdisciplines of botany[link]

Notable botanists[link]

Sculpture of Ibn al-Baitar among trees, Benalmádena, Málaga, Spain

The following botanists made major contributions to the ways in which botany has been studied.

• Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC), "The Father of Botany", established botanical science through his lecture notes, Enquiry into Plants.
• Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40–90 AD), Greek physician, pharmacologist, toxicologist and botanist, author of De Materia Medica (Regarding Medical Matters).
• Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī (828–896), Persian botanist, historian, geographer, astronomer, mathematician, and founder of Arabic botany.
• Su Song (1020–1101), Chinese polymath, botanist, compiled the Bencao Tujing ('Illustrated Pharmacopoeia'), a treatise on pharmaceutical botany, zoology, and mineralogy.
• Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati (c. 1200), Andalusian-Arab botanist and agricultural scientist, and a pioneer in experimental botany.
• Ibn al-Baitar (1197–1248), Andalusian-Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist, physician, and author of one of the largest botanical encyclopedias.
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian polymath; a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.
• John Ray (1627–1705), English naturalist, botanist, and zoologist; father of natural history.
• Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist; introduced the concept of classifying plants based on the structure of their flower, which influenced de Tournefort and Linnaeus.
• Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708), French botanist; first to clearly define the concept of genus for plants.
• Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of Binomial nomenclature; known as the father of modern taxonomy and also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, (1744–1829), French naturalist, botanist, biologist, academic, and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws.
• Aimé Bonpland (1773–1858), French explorer and botanist, who accompanied Alexander von Humboldt during five years of travel in Latin America.
• Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778–1841), Swiss botanist, originated the idea of "Nature's war", which influenced Charles Darwin.
• David Douglas (1799–1834), Scottish botanical explorer of North America and China, who imported many ornamental plants into Europe.
• Richard Spruce (1817–1893), English botanist and explorer who carried out a detailed study of the Amazon flora.
• Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), English botanist and explorer; second winner of Darwin Medal.
• Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–1884), Austrian Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants.
• Charles Sprague Sargent (1841–1927), American botanist, the first director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University.
• Agustín Stahl (1842–1917), Puerto Rican doctor, who conducted investigations and experiments in the fields of botany, ethnology, and zoology in the Caribbean region.
• Luther Burbank (1849–1926), American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science.
• George Ledyard Stebbins, Jr. (1906–2000), American widely regarded as one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century, developed a comprehensive synthesis of plant evolution incorporating genetics.
• Norman Borlaug (1914-2009), American agronomist, known for breeding high yielding wheat varieties. Dubbed the "father of the green revolution"
• Richard Evans Schultes (1915–2001), American botanist and explorer, known as "The Father of Ethnobotany", Linnean Society gold medal winner.

See also[link]

	Biology portal
	Ecology portal

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

Web-based[link]

• "A Basic Introduction to the Science Underlying NCBI Resources". National Center for Biotechnology Information. March 30, 2004. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/primer/genetics_cell.html. Retrieved March 5, 2012. 
• "Botany". Online Etymology Dictionary. 2012. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=botany&searchmode=none. Retrieved February 24, 2012. 
• "Early Herbals – The German Fathers of Botany". National Museum of Wales. July 4, 2007. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/852/?article_id=131. Retrieved February 19, 2012. 
• "Herbal Medicine". University of Maryland Medical Center. http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/herbal-medicine-000351.htm. Retrieved March 2, 2012. 
• "Paleobotany". Cleveland Museum of Natural History. http://www.cmnh.org/site/ResearchandCollections/Paleobotany.aspx. Retrieved March 10, 2012. 
• "Physical Map of Brachypodium". University of California-Davis. http://phymap.ucdavis.edu/brachypodium/phymapintro.jsp. Retrieved February 26, 2012. 
• "Plants and Life on Earth". Missouri Botanical Garden. 2009. http://www.mbgnet.net/bioplants/earth.html. Retrieved March 10, 2012. 
• "Recommendation 60F". International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, Vienna Code. International Association for Plant Taxonomy. 2006. http://ibot.sav.sk/icbn/frameset/0065Ch7OaGoNSec1a60.htm#recF. Retrieved March 4, 2012. 
• Floros, John D.; Newsome, Rosetta; Fisher, William (2010). "Feeding the World Today and Tomorrow: The Importance of Food Science and Technology" (PDF). Institute of Food Technologists. http://www.ift.org/knowledge-center/read-ift-publications/science-reports/~/media/Knowledge%20Center/Science%20Reports/IFTScientificReview_feedingtheworld.pdf. Retrieved March 1, 2012. 
• Gust, Devens (1996). "Why Study Photosynthesis?". Arizona State University. http://bioenergy.asu.edu/photosyn/study.html. Retrieved February 26, 2012. 
• McNeill, J.; Barrie, F. R.; Burdet, H. M.; Demoulin, V. (2006). "International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Vienna Code) Adopted by the Seventeenth International Botanical Congress, Vienna, Austria, July 2005". Vienna: International Association for Plant Taxonomy. http://ibot.sav.sk/icbn/main.htm. Retrieved March 4, 2012. . Note that as the ICN is not yet online, all references are to the previous Vienna Code. ^{Preamble, para. 7}
• Schoening, Steve (2005). "California Noxious and Invasive Weed Action Plan" (PDF). California Department of Food and Agriculture. http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/weedhome/pdfs/noxious_weed_plan.pdf. Retrieved March 1, 2012. 
• Waggoner, Ben (2001). "University of California Museum of Paleontology". University of California-Berkeley. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/hooke.html. Retrieved February 27, 2012. 

Books & journals[link]

Popular science[link]

• Attenborough, David (1995). The Private Life of Plants. London: British Broadcasting Corporation (TV), Edbury Publishing - BBC Books (print). ISBN 0-563-37023-8. 
• Bellamy, David (1972). Bellamy on Botany. London: Edbury Publishing - BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-10666-2. 
• Ben-Menahem, Ari (2009). Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. 1. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 3-540-68831-5. 
• Capon, Brian (2005). Botany for Gardeners (2nd ed.). Portland, OR: Timber Publishing. ISBN 0-88192-655-8. 
  • Capon, Brian (2010). Botany for Gardeners (3rd ed.). Portland, OR: Timber Publishing. ISBN 1-60469-095-X. 
• Cohen, Joel E. (1996). How Many People Can the Earth Support?. London: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-31495-2. 
• Dallal, Ahmad (2010). Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-15911-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=97l0L7zKagkC&lpg=PT197&dq=Ab%C5%AB%20%E1%B8%A4an%C4%ABfa%20D%C4%ABnawar%C4%AB&pg=PT197#v=onepage&q=Ab%C5%AB%20%E1%B8%A4an%C4%ABfa%20D%C4%ABnawar%C4%AB&f=false. 
• Grene, Marjorie Glicksman; Depew, David J. (2004). The Philosophy of Biology: An Episodic History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64371-6. 
• Halle, Francis (2002). In Praise of Plants. Portland, OR: Timber Publishing. ISBN 0-88192-550-0. 
• Iyer, Meena (2009). Faith & Philosophy of Zoroastrianism. Delhi, India: Kalpaz Publications. ISBN 978-81-7835-724-9. 
• King, John (1997). Reaching for the Sun: How Plants Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58738-7. 
• Morton, A. G. (1981). History of Botanical Science. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-508380-7 (hardback), 0125083823 (paperback). 
• Pakenham, Thomas (1996). Meetings with Remarkable Trees. London: Random House. ISBN 0-375-75268-4. 
• Pakenham, Thomas (2002). Remarkable Trees of the World. London: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04911-6. 
• Pollan, Michael (2001). The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-eye View of the World. New York: Public Broadcasting System (TV), Random House (print). ISBN 0-375-50129-0. 
• Thomas, Barry A. (1981). The Evolution of Plants and Flowers. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-27271-5. 
• Walker, David (1992). Energy, Plants and Man (2nd ed.). Sheffield, England: Oxygraphics Ltd. ISBN 1-870232-05-4. 
• Yaniv, Zohara; Bachrach, Uriel (2005). Handbook of Medicinal Plants. Binghampton, NY: Haworth Press. ISBN 1-56022-994-2. 

Academic and scientific[link]

• Acharya, Deepak; Anshu, Shrivastava (2008). Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices. Jaipur, India: Aavishkar Publishers. ISBN 81-7910-252-1. 
• Butz, Stephen D. (2007). Science of Earth Systems (2 ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning. ISBN 1-4180-4122-X. 
• Cavalier-Smith, Thomas (2004). "Only Six Kingdoms of Life" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271: 1251–1262. DOI:10.1098/rspb.2004.2705. PMC 1691724. PMID 15306349. http://www.cladocera.de/protozoa/cavalier-smith_2004_prs.pdf. 
• Crawford, R. M. M. (1988). Studies in Plant Survival: An Ecophysical Examination of Plant Distribution (Studies in Ecology). Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd. ISBN 0-632-01475-X. 
• Chapman, Jasmin; Horsfall, Peter; O'Brien, Pat; Murphy, Jan; MacDonald, Averil (2001). Science Web. Cheltenham, GB: Nelson Thornes. ISBN 0-17-438746-6. 
• Chase, Mark W.; Bremer, Birgitta; Bremer, Kåre; Reveal, James L.; Soltis, Douglas E.; Soltis, Pamela S.; Stevens, Peter S. (2003). "An Update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Classification for the Orders and Families of Flowering Plants: APG II" (PDF). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society (The Linnean Society of London) 141: 399–436. http://ktriop.bio.ug.edu.pl/upload/preview/0f0c6bdcb447f9defaa482c50120a62d.pdf. 
• Copeland, Herbert Faulkner (1938). "The Kingdoms of Organisms". Quarterly Review of Biology 13: 383–420. DOI:10.1086/394568. 
• Devos, Katrien M.; Gale, M. D. (May 2000). "Genome Relationships: The Grass Model in Current Research". The Plant Cell (American Society of Plant Physiologists) 12 (5): 637–646. DOI:10.2307/3870991. JSTOR 3870991. PMC 139917. PMID 10810140. http://www.plantcell.org/cgi/content/full/12/5/637. 
• Ereshefsky, Marc (1997). "The Evolution of the Linnaean Hierarchy". Biology and Philosophy (Kluwer Academic Publishers) 12 (4). DOI:10.1023/A:1006556627052. 
• Gordh, Gordon; Headrick, D. H. (2001). A Dictionary of Entomology. Cambridge, MA: CABI Publishing. ISBN 0-85199-291-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=d0XSwMJLDg4C&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=botane+boskein+botany&source=bl&ots=fL-rp6eaeg&sig=2ENEbYBu734YSMUGSXEP_0LQnYI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dEFIT5__OsWfOrb9sPoN&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=botane%20boskein%20botany&f=false. 
• Gray, Asa; Sargent, Charles (1889). Scientific Papers of Asa Gray: Selected by Charles Sprague Sargent. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. http://books.google.com/books?id=_48KAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA292. Retrieved February 26, 2012. 
• Harris, Henry (2000). The Birth of the Cell. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08295-9. 
• Hoek, Christiaan; Mann, D. G.; Jahns, H. M. (2005). Algae: An Introduction to Phycology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-30419-9. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xuUoiFesSHMC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Levey, Martin (1973). Early Arabic Pharmacology: An Introduction Based on Ancient and Medieval Sources. Leiden: Brill Archive. ISBN 978-90-04-03796-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=LtYUAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA116&dq=%22Ibn%20al-Baitar%22&pg=PA116#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). Botane (βοτάνη). Oxford: Clarendon Press via Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dbota%2Fnh. 
• Mann, J. (1987). Secondary Metabolism, 2nd ed.. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-855529-6. 
• Matthews, R. E. F. (1992). Fundamentals of Plant Virology. Waltham, MA: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-480558-2. 
• Mauseth, James D. (2003). Botany : An Introduction to Plant Biology (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning. ISBN 0-7637-2134-4. 
  • Mauseth, James D. (2008). Botany : An Introduction to Plant Biology (4th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning. ISBN 0-7637-5345-9. 
• Panaino, Antonio (2002). Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena: Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project, Held in Chicago, USA, October 27-31, 2000. Bologna: Mimesis Edizioni. ISBN 978-88-8483-107-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=hUNFLpQSqbkC&lpg=PA93&dq=%22First%2C%20the%20books%20of%20the%20Nabatean%20corpus%20themselves%20claim%20to%20be%20translations%20from&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Raven, Peter H.; Curtis, Helena (1970). Biology of Plants (1st ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. ASIN B000GR7R0I. 
  • Raven, Peter H.; Evert, Ray H. (1998). Biology of Plants (6th revised ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 1-57259-041-6. 
  • Raven, Peter H.; Evert, Ray H.; Eichhorn, Susan E. (2005). Biology of Plants (7th ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-1007-2. 
• Ridge, Irene (2002). Plants. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-925548-2. 
• Scharf, Sara T. (2009). "Identification Keys, the “Natural Method,” and the Development of Plant Identification Manuals". Journal of the History of Biology 42 (1): 73–117. DOI:10.1007/s10739-008-9161-0. 
• Scharlemann, J. P. W.; Laurance, W. F. (2008). "How Green are Biofuels?". Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 319. 
• Sprague, T. A. (1939). "The Herbal of Valerius Cordus". The Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Linnean Society of London) LII (341). 
• Silyn-Roberts, Heather (2000). Writing for Science and Engineering: Papers, Presentation. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0-7506-4636-5. http://books.google.com/?id=hVUU7Gq8QskC&lpg=PA198&dq=species%20epithet%20capitalize&pg=PA198#v=onepage&q=species%20epithet%20capitalize. 
• Strange, Richard N. (2003). Introduction to Plant Pathology. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-470-84973-8. 
• Walter, Heinrich (1985). Vegetation of the Earth (3rd revised ed.). New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-13748-3. 
• Willis, Kathy; McElwain, Jenny (2002). The Evolution of Plants. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850065-3. 
• Woese, C. R.; Balch, W. E.; Magrum, L. J.; Fox, G. E.; Wolfe, R. S. (August 1977). "An Ancient Divergence Among the Bacteria". Journal of Molecular Evolution 9 (4): 305–311. DOI:10.1007/BF01796092. PMID 408502. 
  • Woese, C.; Kandler, O.; Wheelis, M. (1990). "Towards a Natural System of Organisms: Proposal for the Domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 87 (12). Bibcode 1990PNAS...87.4576W. DOI:10.1073/pnas.87.12.4576. PMC 54159. PMID 2112744. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/87/12/4576. 

Environmental botany

• Crawley, Michael J. (1997). Plant Ecology (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Ltd. ISBN 0-632-03639-7. 
• Ennos, Roland; Sheffield, Elizabeth (2000). Plant Life. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Ltd. ISBN 0-86542-737-2. 
• Everitt; Lonard; Little, C. R. (2007). Weeds in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press. ISBN 0-89672-614-2. 
• Richards, P. W. (1996). The Tropical Rainforest (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-42194-2. 
• Stace, Clive Anthony (1997). A New Flora of the British Isles (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58935-5. 

Plant physiology

• Bowsher, Caroline G.; Steer, M. W.; Tobin, A. K. (2008). Plant Biochemistry (2nd ed.). New York: Garland Science, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8153-4121-0. 
• Buchanan, Bob B.; Gruissem, Wilhelm; Jones, Russell L. (2000). Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of Plants. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-943088-39-9. 
• Fitter, Alastair H.; Hay, Robert K. M. (2001). Environmental Physiology of Plants (3rd ed.). New York: Harcourt Publishers, Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-257766-3. 
• Lambers, Hans; Chapin III, Francis Stuart; Pons, Thijs Leendert (1998). Plant Physiological Ecology. New York: Springer Science. ISBN 0-387-98326-0. 
  • Lambers, Hans; Chapin III, Francis Stuart; Pons, Thijs Leendert (2008). Plant Physiological Ecology (2nd ed.). New York: Springer Science. DOI:10.1007/978-0-387-78341-3. ISBN 978-0-387-78340-6. 
• Lawlor, David W. (2000). Photosynthesis (3rd ed.). New York: Garland Science. ISBN 1-85996-157-6. 
• Salisbury; Ross, Cleon W. (1992). Plant Physiology (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 0-534-15162-0. 
• Taiz, Lincoln; Zeiger, Eduardo (1991). Plant Physiology. Redwood City, CA: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing. ISBN 0-8053-0245-X. 
  • Taiz, Lincoln; Zeiger, Eduardo (2002). Plant Physiology (3rd ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. ISBN 0-87893-823-0. 
  • Taiz, Lincoln; Zeiger, Eduardo (2006). Plant Physiology (4th ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. ISBN 0-87893-856-7. 
  • Taiz, Lincoln; Zeiger, Eduardor (2010). Plant Physiology (5th ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. ISBN 0-87893-866-4. 

External links[link]

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Botany

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Botany

At Wikiversity you can learn more and teach others about Botany at: The Department of Botany

• Botany at the Open Directory Project
• Botany databases at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
• Directory of Plants (PDF)
• High quality pictures of plants and information about them from Catholic University of Leuven
• Native Plant Information Network
• USDA plant database
• The Virtual Library of Botany

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