What Is Plant Biology ?

Chapter 1

Outline

Human and Animal Dependence on Plants

Botany as a Science

Scientific Method

Diversification of Plant Study

 

Human and Animal Dependence on Plants

Plants are the source of multiple products of human society:

Food

Perfumes

Dyes

Beverages

Lumber

Paper

Clothing

Botany As A Science

At first, interest in plants was practical.

Centered around the production of food, fibers, fuel, and medicine.

Eventually, an intellectual interest arose.

Science involves the observation, recording, organization, and classification of information.

Scientific Method

Hypothesis - Tentative, unproven explanation of an observation.

Experiment - Test to determine if a hypothesis is correct.

Variables - Aspects of the experiment that can be changed or held constant.

Control - All variables held constant.

Data - Results from the experiment.

Scientific Method

Principle - Useful generalization derived from experimental data.

Theory - Grouping of related principles.

 

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

  A scientific method is a logical, orderly way of trying to solve a problem. The logic and order makes this method different from the normal hit-or-miss approaches.

The research method is one method. The steps are orderly and logical and are mainly common sense.

6. Draw conclusions

. What is Botany?

. Botany is the scientific study of plants. "Plants," to most people, means a wide range of living organisms from the smallest bacteria to the largest living things - the giant sequoia trees. By this definition plants include: algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants.

. History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive. It knows the names of the kings’ bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat. This is the way of human folly.

J. H. Fabre

5-15 Billion+: 6 December. Carbon (the basis of organic life), oxygen, and other elements were created from hydrogen and helium in the fury of burning supernovae. Having arisen when the stars were formed, the elements of which life is built, and thus we ourselves, might be thought of as stardust. (Dauber & Muller, 1996)

3.75 Billion: Mixed deposits of ferrous and ferric oxide suggest the presence of free atmospheric oxygen. This could be construed as evidence for photosynthetic activity. (de Duve, 1995)

3.5 Billion: Origination of the oldest dated stromatolites. These layered geological formations are built by successive generations of blue green algae (cyanobacteria.) (de Duve, 1995) Lower Precambrian rocks in South Africa contain what is possibly the earliest known evidence of cellular organisms, resembling blue green algae. (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

2 Billion: Data suggest that by this time in the history of the Earth molecular oxygen began to make a significant difference in the nature of the atmosphere. (de Duve, 1995)

1.6 Billion: Strong evidence indicates that filamentous and unicellular blue green algae existed by this period in the history of the Earth. (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

900 Million: Late Precambrian deposits at Bitter Springs, Australia, hold numerous kinds of blue-green and green algae. (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

570 Million: Dawning of the Paleozoic era

395 Million: The lower Devonian period. The Scottish Rhynie chert deposit from this period is famous for its excellent representation of Rhynia, one of the earliest vascular plants in the fossil record. By 350 million years BP land plants at last became significant. By the upper Devonian, Calamites (the giant horsetail) achieved abundance (as represented in strata of that age.)

We know now that seed bearing plants (Archaeosperma and Spermolithus) are represented in upper Devonian deposits. (Bold, Alexopoulos, & Delevoryas, 1980)

345 Million: Now termed the Mississippian, this period together with the Pennsylvanian (through to 225 million years BP) constitutes the age of coal - the Carboniferous.

136 Million: With deposits from the Cretaceous period we see the first evidence of flowering plants.

50,000 BC

Wild date seed were left in the Shanidar Cave of Northern Iraq. Also found at that site was evidence that cave dwellers consumed chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, and acorns. (Root, 1980)

. History of Systematic Botany

Agriculture began some 9000 years ago in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia

Assyrian herbal of the 7th century B.C. gives a list of some 700 medicinal and semi-medicinal plants arranged according to use and application.

. Ebers medical papyrus from Egypt is a systematic arrangement of medicinal plants from the 1500 B.C.

classification based on habit

. Theophrastus (372-287 B.C.)

"Father of botany"

trees, shrubs, undershrubs and herbs

annual, biennial and perennial

indeterminate and determinate inflorescences, ovary position

polypetalous and gamopetalous corollas

. Enquiry into plants

The causes of plants - see page of a mid fifteenth century translation

Caius Plinius Secundus (23-79 A.D.)

"Pliny the Elder

. Emperor Shen [or Chi'en] Nung (2800 B.C.)

"Father of Agriculture and Medicine" in China

365 plants described in manuscript named Pen Tsao

. Islamic botanists and scholars

All-Asma'i of Basra (740-828) wrote books on plants, trees and vines

Abu Mansur Muwaffak Bin Ali Harawi wrote a tenth century herbal following Dioscorides and various Indian writers

Ibn Sina (980-1037), known as Avicenna, wrote the Canon of Medicine, an encyclopedic work on plants;

. Indian author Parasara wrote Vrikshauyrveda (ca 50 BC), a work on general botany

Medieval time was not noted for science in the West with many misconceptions and mythical plants

. The very first ancient documents about plants (Babylonian souces, the Old Testament, HOMER's works) that came down on us regarded plants mainly under the aspects of utility and medicinal use. The interest of the old Greek philosophers focused more on the comparison of animal and man on one hand and plants on the other.

. EMPEDOCLES FROM AGRIENT, for example, dwelt on the question whether plants have a soul while ARISTOTLE ranks them in the middle between the inanimate and the animate.

. THEOPHRASTUS wrote two works of a general nature on plants:The Natural History of Plants and About the Reasons of Vegetable Growth . Both had a formative influence on the botanical research of following scientists.

. An estimated 1300-1400 different plant species were known under Roman reign. The interest of the Romans concentrated more on practical problems: PLINY THE OLDER reviewed plants mainly under aspects of utility while the work of DIOSKORIDE on pharmacology gained him the reputation as the superior authority on this subject for more than sixteen centuries to come.

. He describes more than 500 different plant species. No further knowledge was gained during the Middle Ages though Europe was confronted with the works and thoughts of antiquity through the Arab reign. The first original observations were made by HILDEGARD von BINGEN, but it is ALBERT THE GREAT who is regarded as the rediscoverer of scientific botany.

. His work had a large influence on Western scientific literature. New knowledge was also gained by the travelers and discoverers of the time, MARCO POLO, for example, and the crusades. The ideas of antiquity became popular again during the Renaissance, while the 17th and 18th century was the time of the beginning specialization.

. The attempt to find a natural system for the great variety of plant species led to decisive contributions to botany. At about the same time another field of modern biology, cell biology, took its beginning with the invention of the microscope. Since the 16th century physiology became a botanical topic, too.

. 1800 B.C. Although Hammurabi's code mentions the practice of hand pollinating date palms, the sexuality of plants was not understood until 1694.

c. 300 B.C. Theophrastos produced two great works on plants, Historia Plantarum, and De Causis Plantarum, in which he pursued the classification and physiology of plants.

 

. c. 50-60 Pedanius Dioscorides's De Materia Medica described 600 plants of medical value. Dioscorides also made the first recorded use of anesthesia.

c. 1010 Avicenna (Ibn Sina or Abu Ali al Hussein ibn Abdallah) published his Canon of Medicine (Al-Quanun) which was translated into Latin in 1473 by Gerard of Cremona and remained a useful text well into the 17th century.

 

. c. 1450

Nicholas Cusa (Nikolas von Cusa, Nicolaus Cusanus) suggested that plants grew by assimilation of water.

1539

Hieronymus Bock (Jerome Boch) arranged plants by relation or resemblance. His was the first attempt at a natural classification of plants.

 

 

. 1551-71

Conrad Gessner (Konrad Gesner) published Opera Botanica and Historia Plantarum, works which would influence such later taxonomists as Linnaeus and Cuvier.

 

 

 

 

. 1648 Publication of Jean Baptiste Van Helmont's Ortus Medicinae, including account of an experiment on plant nutrition from which he concluded that plants derive their substance from water. He coined the word "gas" and described the properties of carbon dioxide.

1752 James Lind called attention to the value of fresh fruits in preventing scurvy.

 

. 1770-74

Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen and showed that it is consumed by animals and produced by plants.

1739—Irish Potato Famine

. 1744

Rules were established for the game of cricket. Although a variety of woods has been utilized to manufacture bats for this game, a variety of white willow (Salix alba var. caerulea) has proven to provide the best wood. Trees of this cricket bat willow are about 15 years old and around 20 meters tall when harvested.

. 1759 The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Boston Tea Party

1802 The first seed sold in packages in America were marketed by a Shaker community at Enfield, Connecticut.

1803German pharmacist, F.W. Serturner, isolated morphine from opium latex.

1820French chemists isolated quinine (an alkaloid) from the bark of Cinchona, making possible the production of a purified chemical treatment for malaria.

 

. 1828 Adolphe Brongniart published the first complete account of fossil plants, establishing himself as the founder of modern paleobotany.

1850 The mechanization of agriculture began. Mechanical reapers, and later the internal combustion engine (and consequently the tractor) altered the face of the world - and the growth and increasing urbanization of the world population.

. 1858Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace were hastily paired to jointly present their ideas "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection"

1866Gregor Mendel discovered and published the basic patterns of inheritance and his understanding of the hereditary nature of variation between individuals in a population

. 1904Iced tea is said to have been first served at the St. Louis World’s Fair

1982The first genetically engineered crop was developed at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. By 1994 the Flavr-Savr tomato became the first such plant approved for commercial marketing. The Flavr-Savr tomato was designed for slow fruit ripening and increased shop life.

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. Today scientists believe bacteria, algae and fungi are in their own distinct kingdoms, but most general botany courses, and most Botany Departments at colleges and universities, still teach about these groups

. Because the field is so broad, there are many kinds of plant biologists and many different opportunities available. Botanists interested in ecology study interactions of plants with other organisms and the environment. Other field botanists search to find new species or do experiments to discover how plants grow under different conditions. Some botanists study the structure of plants

They may work in the field, concentrating on the pattern of the whole plant. Others use microscopes to study the most detailed fine structure of individual cells. Many botanists do experiments to determine how plants convert simple chemical compounds into more complex chemicals.

. They may even study how genetic information in DNA controls plant development. Botanists study processes that occur on a time scale ranging from fractions of a second in individual cells to those that unfold over eons of evolutionary time.

. The results of botanical research increase and improve our supply of medicines, foods, fibers, building materials, and other plant products. Conservationists use botanical knowledge to help manage parks, forests, range lands, and wilderness areas. Public health and environmental protection professionals depend on their understanding of plant science to help solve pollution problems.

. Why Choose a Career in Botany?

Plants have intrigued people for thousands of years. They provide aesthetic beauty as well as materials for our basic needs. Today our world presents new and complex problems that were never dreamed of a century ago. For instance, increasing human population is linked to environmental problems of gigantic proportion.

. Coupled to the need for more food is increasingly greater environmental impact. Leaf of Western Skunk Cabbage, Lysichitum americanum grows up to four feet in length in marshy or swampy areas of the Pacific Northwest.Photo courtesy of Marsh Sundberg.Air and water pollution increase while biological diversity is reduced.

. Recent progress in technology and molecular biology provide powerful new tools that can help us solve these and other challenging problems. Some of the tools you might learn to use include: electron microscopes, radioisotopes, digital imaging analysis, polymerase chain reaction, cell and tissue culture, satellite imaging and telemetry.

. One of the best things about plant science is the number of different specialties and career opportunities from which you can choose. This diversity allows people with different backgrounds, aptitudes, and interests to find satisfying careers in plant biology. More than many other scientific fields, botany continues to provide opportunities for women as well as men.

. There are few things more fulfilling than to work in a job that is both fun to do and a benefit to others.

Careers are available to a person who enjoys the outdoors are positions as an ecologist, taxonomist, conservationist, forester, or plant explorer. Your work may take you to foreign and exotic lands. It may allow you to live and work in the great outdoors.

. A person with a mathematical background might find biophysics, developmental botany, genetics, modeling, or systems ecology to be exciting fields. Someone with an interest in chemistry might become a plant physiologist, plant biochemist, molecular biologist, or chemotaxonomist.

. The major employers of plant biologists are educational institutions, federal and state agencies, and industries. Job opportunities usually depend upon educational training and experience. New positions in botany are expected to increase at an above-average rate through the turn of the century. Growing world population continues to increase the need for better food supplies.

. Environmental concerns, such as air, water and soil pollution, will create openings for ecologists in government and industry. The search for new drugs and medicines and useful genes for improving crop plants will continue to create a need for botanical explorers.

. Educational institutions, which employ most plant biologists, range from high schools and community colleges to universities.

Most positions for professional plant scientists are in colleges and universities

Federal and state agencies need botanists in many different fields.

Industry is the third major employer of plant biologists.

. One of the most exciting fields in botany today is biotechnology.

Another challenging area of basic biological research involves cell membranes.

Teaching botany is a challenging and rewarding career.

. Some botanists work in marketing or administration of plant-related industries such as pharmaceutical companies, seed companies, biotechnology firms, scientific publishers and biological supply houses. Other plant biologists work in museums, herbaria, and botanical gardens. Some, with additional training, become scientific writers, computer programmers, botanical illustrators, or even lawyers or physicians.

Diversification of Plant Study

Plant Anatomy

Chiefly concerned with internal structure of plants.

Plant Physiology

Concerned with plant function.

Plant Taxonomy

Plant Systematics - System of classification and naming.

Diversification of Plant Study

Plant Geography

Study of plant distributions.

Plant Ecology

Study of interaction between plants and their environments.

Plant Morphology

Study of the form and structure of plants.

Diversification of Plant Study

Genetics

Science of Heredity

Enormous potential for further development of better agricultural, medicinal, and other useful plants.

Cell Biology

Science of cell structure and function.

Diversification of Plant Study

Economic Botany and Ethnobotany

Examines practical uses of plants and plant products.

Still vast amounts of botanical information yet to be discovered.

Review

Human and Animal Dependence on Plants

Botany as a Science

Scientific Method

Diversification of Plant Study