Botany Plants=Life

2014

Botany Department

University of Otago

Botany, a term from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη (botane) meaning ‘pasture’, ‘grass’ or ‘fodder’, is the scientific study of plant life. Being one of the oldest sciences, it once involved identifying and cultivating edible, medicinal and poisonous plants; picture the village herbalist, and physic gardens, often attached to monasteries and later, universities. As scientific knowledge and technologies advanced so did botanical studies. Today’s student of botany is faced with a subject that is now multidisciplinary, and increasingly studied at different scales from the gene to the ecosystem. No matter what the approach is, this 2014 brochure states a truism: ‘knowledge about plants is fundamental to our survival.’