Chapter 1
Botany is the branch of
biology concerned with the scientific study of plants. Traditionally, botanists studied all organisms that were not generally regarded as animal. However, advances in our knowledge about the myriad forms of life, especially microbes (viruses and bacteria), have led to spinning off from Botany the specialized field called
Microbiology. Still, the microbes are usually covered in introductory Botany courses, although their status as neither animal nor plant is firmly established.Read Biology (Links need not be pursued at this time) Read Botany (Links need not be pursued at this time) and note that other texts encompassing topics in Biology are available (
under development) at WikiBooks as sources of reference. Plants are living entities, and material presented within
Biology will have relevence here, most particularly at the cellular and subcellular levels of organization (Chapter 2). Both plants and animals deal with the same problems of maintaining life on planet Earth — their approaches seem quite different, but the end result is the same: continued existence in an organized state, as part of a universe whose tendency is towards greater disorganization. Back on Earth, however, it is a fact that microbes, plants, and animals comprise a very interdependent system. We divide them apart, because our minds work best that way. We categorize and learn common features or properties of the categories. This approach is neither right nor wrong, but is clearly efficient for our minds. Nonetheless, it is desirable to regularly step back and realize that the boundaries between categories are often just constructs, and exceptions to our categories usually abound.It was alluded to in the opening definition that Botany is a
science. Just what makes Botany, or anything else a science? It is important to acquire a grasp of the fundamentals of science itself to fully appreciate both how botanical knowledge was gained as well as how it can be used. It is usually quickly disinteresting to acquire facts simply for the sake of knowing. Humans do not just appreciate mountains
because they are there, they climb them because they are there!Read Science (The following links are included:) Scientific Method Philosophy of Science Read Why study science?
Questions:1-1. Do you think the
scientific method is something only a scientist would use?[edit] Living SystemsBiology is defined as the study of life, and Botany is that discipline within Biology concerned with the study of living organisms called
plants and with certain other living things that are not plants (but are not animals either).[edit] Defining 'Plant'Like many words in common usage that apply to biological entities or concepts, the term
plant is more difficult to define than might be at first obvious.
Although botanists describe a
Kingdom Plantae, the boundaries defining members of Plantae are more exclusive than our common concept of a "plant". We are tempted to regard
plant as meaning a multicellular, eukaryotic organism that generally does not have sensory organs or voluntary motion and has, when complete, a root, stem, and leaves. However, botanically only vascular plants have a root, stem, and leaves, and even some vascular plants, such as certain carnivorous plants and duckweed, fall afoul of that definition. But to be fair, the vascular plants are the plants we tend to encounter every day and that most people would readily regard as "plants".A more significant point of departure between Plantae and plants occurs among the seaweeds. Technically, only a relatively minor group of seaweeds (the chlorophytes or green algae) are members of the Kingdom Plantae. The majority of seaweeds, like the kelps (very large brown algae from the Order Laminariales), despite a superficial appearance of such, lack true stems, leaves, roots, and any kind of vascular systems as found inigher plants. Thus, the kelps are not Plantae; but are they plants? Certainly if we regard the green algae as plants, it is difficult to exclude the more prominent red and brown algae of our coastal waters.Another, much broader definition for
plant is that it refers to any organism that is
photoautotrophic—produces its own food from raw inorganic materials and sunlight. This is not an unreasonable definition, and is one that focuses on the role plants typically play in an ecosystem. However, there are photoautotrophs among the
Prokaryotes, specifically photoautotrophic bacteria and cyanophytes. The latter are sometimes called (for good reasons) blue-green algae. Then there arises the problem that many people would consider that a mushroom is a plant; a mushroom is the fruiting body of a fungus (Kingdom Fungi) and not
photoautotrophic at all, but
saprophytic. However, there are more than a few species of flowering plants, fungi, and bacteria that are not autotrophic, but
parasitic..