Botany
Botany, plant science(s), phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines concerned with the study of plants, algae and fungi, including structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, chemical properties, and evolutionary relationships between taxonomic groups. Botany began with early human efforts to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making it one of the oldest sciences. Today botanists study over 550,000 species of living organisms.
- Agronomy — Application of plant science to crop production
- Bryology — Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts
- Economic botany — Study of plants of economic use or value
- Ethnobotany — Relationship between humans and plants
- Forestry — Forest management and related studies
- Horticulture — Cultivated plants
- Lichenology — The study of lichens
- Paleobotany — Fossil plants
- Palynology — Pollen and spores
- Phycology — Algae
- Phytochemistry — Plant secondary chemistry and chemical processes
- Phytopathology — Plant diseases
- Plant anatomy — Cell and tissue structure
- Plant ecology — Role of plants in the environment
- Plant genetics — Genetic inheritance in plants
- Plant morphology — Structure and life cycles
- Plant physiology — Life functions of plants
- Plant systematics — Classification and naming of plants
Notable botanists
- Ibn al-Baitar (d. 1248), Andalusian-Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist, physician, and author of one of the largest botanical encyclopedias.
- L.J.F. Brimble (1904–1965), English botanist and editor of Nature magazine
- Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati (c. 1200), Andalusian-Arab botanist and agricultural scientist, and a pioneer in experimental botany.
- Aimé Bonpland (1773–1858), French explorer and botanist, who accompanied Alexander von Humboldt during five years of travel in Latin America.
- Luther Burbank (1849–1926), American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science.
- Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778–1841), He originated the idea of "Nature's war", which influenced Charles Darwin.
- Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī (828-896), Persian botanist, historian, geographer, astronomer, mathematician, and founder of Arabic botany.
- David Douglas (1799–1834), Scottish botanical explorer of North America and China, who imported many ornamental plants into Europe.
- Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), English botanist and explorer. Second winner of Darwin Medal.
- Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40-90 AD), physician, pharmacologist, toxicologist and botanist, author of Regarding Medical Matters
- Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895), English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Third winner of Darwin Medal.
- Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of Binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.
- Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–1884), 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.
- Carlos Muñoz Pizarro (1913–1976), Chilean botanist, known for his studies of the Chilean flora, and its conservation.
- Richard Spruce (1817–1893), English botanist and explorer who carried out a detailed study of the Amazon flora.
- Agustín Stahl (1842–1917), conducted investigations and experiments in the fields of ethnology, and zoology in the Caribbean region.
- George Ledyard Stebbins, Jr. (1906–2000), widely regarded as one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century, developed a comprehensive synthesis of plant evolution incorporating genetics.
- Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC), father of botany, established botanical science through his lecture notes, Enquiry into Plants.
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian polymath; a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.
