Plant and Animal Biology

• Botany is the scientific study of plants, or multicellular organisms, that carry on photosynthesis.
• Botany, as a branch of biology, is sometimes referred to as plant science or plant biology.
• Botany includes a wide range of scientific subdisciplines that study the structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, ecology and evolution of plants.
• Plants are a fundamental part of life on Earth, generating food, oxygen, fuel, medicine and fibers that allow other life forms to exist.
• Through photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide, a waste product generated by most animals and a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
• Agronomy and Crop Science is an agricultural science dealing with field crop production and soil management.
• Algology and Phycology is the study of algae.
• Bryology is the study of mosses and liverworts.
• Mycology is the study of fungi.
• Paleobotany is the study of plant fossils.
• Plant Anatomy and Physiology is the study of the structure and function of plants.
• Plant Cell Biology is the study of the structure and function of cells.
• Plant Genetics is the study of genetic inheritance in plants.
• Plant Pathology is the study of diseases in plants.
• Pteridology is the study of ferns and their relatives.
• Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher who first studied with Plato and then became a disciple of Aristotle, is credited with founding botany.
• Pedanius Dioscorides, a Greek botanist of the 1st century CE, was the most important botanical writer after Theophrastus.
• Dioscorides described some 600 kinds of plants, with comments on their habit of growth and form as well as on their medicinal properties.
• Plants are also the source of insecticides and pesticides as naturally derived pesticides are safe and do not harm the soil.
• Plants and trees are beneficial for our wellbeing and can increase physical health, mental wellbeing, and our quality of life.
• Plant products are essential for human nutrition as they produce fruits rich in carbohydrate, vitamins and fiber that are necessary for health maintenance.
• Protecting habitats, especially ancient primary forests containing native species that have had little human disturbance in the past, is important for the environment and our general wellbeing.
• Exercise in green spaces can reduce stress and anxiety, improve self-esteem and mood.
• Plants play an important role in the discovery of new drugs and many blockbuster drugs are derived either directly or indirectly from plants.
• Everything we eat, including meat from animals, is a result of plants using the energy in sunlight to take carbon dioxide and create complex carbon-containing molecules.
• Plant products are also a source of industrial products as wooden furniture, doors, windows and different household products are made from wood of huge trees.
• It's important to protect biodiversity of plants so that new drug discoveries can be made in the future.
• Without plants there would be no food as all carbon in proteins, fats and carbohydrates is derived from photosynthesis in plants.
• Plants are a great source of medicine even for life-threatening diseases and their medicine is safer due to their lower chances of side effects and better compatibility to humans.
• Unlike Theophrastus, who classified plants as trees, shrubs, and herbs, Dioscorides grouped his plants under three headings: as aromatic, culinary, and medicinal.
• Source of papers that we use daily for writing are from bamboos.
• Some plants are also grown for the sake of bio-fuels as plant products are used as coal and other fuel products.
• Plant products are a source of vegetables, fruits, essential oils, spices, beverages and many more that provides the prime importance of plants to humans.
• Medicines derived from plants include vincristine, digitalis, colchicine, reserpine, quinine, morphine, taxol and aspirin.
• Dioscorides’ herbal, unique in that it was the first treatment of medicinal plants to be illustrated, remained for about 15 centuries the last word on medical botany in Europe.
• In the 1st century CE, Pliny the Elder, though no more original than his Roman predecessors, seemed more industrious as a compiler.
• Stephen Hales, a prominent figure in experimental plant physiology, published his observations on the movements of water in plants under the title Vegetable Staticks in 1727.
• Binomial nomenclature had been introduced much earlier by some of the herbalists, but it was not generally accepted; most botanists continued to use cumbersome formal descriptions, consisting of many words, to name a plant.
• Historia naturalis, an encyclopaedia of 37 volumes, was compiled from some 2,000 works representing 146 Roman and 327 Greek authors.
• Nehemiah Grew and Marcello Malpighi founded plant anatomy in 1671 and simultaneously communicated the results of microscopic studies to the Royal Society of London.