Botany, plant science(s), phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the scientific study of plant life and development. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study plants, algae, and fungi including: structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, and chemical properties and evolutionary relationships between the different groups. Botany, the study of plants, began with tribal efforts to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making botany one of the oldest sciences. From this ancient interest in plants, the scope of botany has increased to include the study of over 550,000 kinds or species of living organisms.


Subdisciplines of Botany
Ä Agronomy—Application of plant science to crop production
Ä Bryology—Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts
Ä Economic botany—Study of plants of economic use or value
Ä Ethnobotany—Relationship between humans and plants
Ä Forestry—Forest management and related studies
Ä Horticulture—Cultivated plants
Ä Lichenology—The study of lichens
Ä Paleobotany—Fossil plants
Ä Palynology—Pollen and spores
Ä Phycology—Algae
Ä Phytochemistry—Plant secondary chemistry and chemical processes
Ä Phytopathology—Plant diseases
Ä Plant anatomy—Cell and tissue structure
Ä Plant biotechnology —Present technology used in different subdisciplines in plant science
Ä Plant breeding —Hybridization in plants
Ä Plant ecology—Role of plants in the environment
Ä Plant morphology—Structure and life cycles
Ä Plant physiology—Life functions of plants
Ä Plant systematics—Classification and naming of plants


See also
Ä History of plant systematics
Ä History of phycology
Ä Botanical garden and List of botanical gardens
Ä Dendrochronology
Ä List of domesticated plants
Ä Edible Flowers
Ä Flowers and List of flowers
Ä Forestry
Ä Herbs
Ä List of botanical journals
Ä List of botanists
Ä List of botanists by author abbreviation
Ä List of systems of plant taxonomy
Ä List of publications in biology
Ä Paleobotany
Ä Palynology
Ä Plant anatomy
Ä Seeds
Ä Plant physiology
Ä Plant community
Ä Plant sexuality
Ä Soil science
Ä Trees
Ä Vegetation
Ä Weed Science
Ä Zoology