botany

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A plant community in the Ruwenzori Mountains

The Botany ( ancient Greek βοτανική (ἐπιστήμη) botaniké [EPISTEME] , of botáne , pasture, forage plant '[EPISTEME -science], also Phytology and botany ) explores the plants . It deals with the life cycle , metabolism , growth and structure of plants; also with their ingredients (see medicine ), their ecology (see biocenosis ) and their economic benefits (see useful plants ) as well as their systematics . In its origins, botany goes back to the medical / medicinal treatment of medicinal plants. The writings of Theophrastus from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC testify to a first abstract scientific investigation and systematization of the plant kingdom . Chr.

More recently, botany has been increasingly referred to as plant science in the academic field based on international usage (“Plant Science”) . For example, the leading university textbook on botany , which can be traced back to Eduard Strasburger , was renamed Textbook of Plant Science from the 37th edition (2014) , and some botany courses in the German-speaking area are now listed as plant science courses.

Demarcation

In addition to vascular plants , plants in the narrower sense also include mosses and green algae . In the past, fungi , lichens and the prokaryotes ( bacteria and archaea ) were also considered plants. Although one recognizes today that these (like all algae except the green algae) are not phylogenetically related to the plants, algae groups such as red algae , brown algae , diatoms as well as fungi and lichens are still treated in botany.

Prokaryotes (including the cyanobacteria it contains , formerly known as blue-green algae ) have long been the subject of a separate discipline, microbiology , together with other microorganisms .

areas of expertise

Textbook for teaching botany (1893)
Allegory of botany at the Oskar-von-Miller-Gymnasium in Munich

Core areas

Due to the different questions and methods, the following sub-areas of botany have developed:

  • Plant morphology - research into the structure and shape of plants with the sub-areas
    • Morphology in the narrower sense - the external structure of the plants
    • Anatomy - internal structure of plants
    • Histology - tissue theory
    • Cytology - fine structure of the cell
  • Plant physiology - research into the general functional processes of plants with the sub-areas
    • Metabolic physiology
    • Stimulus and movement physiology
    • Developmental physiology
    • Ecophysiology of plants - deals with adaptations of plant physiology from an ecological point of view

In many cases there is also a division into general and special botany , whereby general botany deals with the plant-biological fundamentals that extend across the plant kingdom, while special botany provides in- depth knowledge of the biology of selected clans of plant systematics .

Special areas and related disciplines

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Society of Plant Sciences. Imprint of the German Botanical Society in English, accessed on May 12, 2020 (English).
  2. ^ Andreas Bresinsky, Christian Körner, Joachim Kadereit, Günther Neuhaus, Uwe Sonnewald: Strasburger Textbook of Botany . 36th edition. Spectrum / Springer, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8274-1455-7 .
  3. ↑ Joachim Kadereit, Christian Körner, Kost Benedikt, Uwe Sonnewald: Strasburger Textbook of Plant Science . 37th edition. Spectrum / Springer, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-642-54434-7 .
  4. ↑ Master's degree in plant science . University of Graz - Institute of Botany, accessed on May 12, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Biology courses of study. Technical University of Munich, accessed on May 12, 2020 .
  6. ^ What can I do with a major in Botany? In: University of Oklahoma. Retrieved May 12, 2020 .
  7. ^ Plant Sciences and Landscape Architecture. In: University of Maryland. Retrieved May 12, 2020 .
  8. ^ Journal of Applied Botany and Food Quality. Section Applied Botany of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) and German Society for Quality Research on Plant Foods, accessed on May 12, 2020 .
  9. ^ Biomonitoring of air pollutants with plants. In: University of Hohenheim. Retrieved May 12, 2020 .
  10. ↑ International Conference on Applied Plant Science and Biotechnology. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, accessed May 12, 2020 .
  11. ^ Departments of Applied Botany and Biotechnology. In: IndCareer. Retrieved May 12, 2020 .
  12. ^ Robyn Klein: Medical Botany . In: Veterinary Herbal Medicine . Elsevier, New York 2007, pp. 139-158 ( sciencedirect.com ).
  13. ^ Lewis Walter, Elvin-Lewis Memory: Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Human Health . 2nd Edition. Wiley, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-471-62882-8 .
  14. ↑ General botany. In: Ulm University. Retrieved May 12, 2020 .
  15. ↑ K. Giesenhagen: Special botany . In: Textbook of Botany . Vieweg and Teubner, Wiesbaden, ISBN 978-3-663-15326-9 , pp. 224-376 ( springer.com ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Botany  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Botany  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikisource: Botany  - Sources and full texts