Botany Science

Botany is the science of plant life and a branch of biology.

The term 'botany' comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη (botanē) meaning 'pasture', 'herbs', 'grass', or 'fodder'; βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν (boskein), 'to feed' or 'to graze'.

Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify – and later cultivate – plants that were edible, poisonous, and possibly medicinal.

<p>Botanists study approximately 410,000 species of land plants, of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants, including approximately 369,000 species of flowering plants, and approximately 20,000 are bryophytes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants possibly having medicinal benefit and were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards.</p> Signup and view all the answers