Botany: The Science of Plant Life

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'.

Botanists (in the strict sense) 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.

Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants possibly having medicinal benefit. They were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards.

<p>One of the earliest botanical gardens was the Padua botanical garden, founded from the 1540s onwards.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>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, making it one of the first endeavors of human investigation.</p> Signup and view all the answers