Botn-21-Lesson-1.1.pptx

BOTN 21 (General Botany) Lesson 1.1: Botany and the Importance of Plants Learning Objectives After taking this lesson, you should be able to: 1. Define Botany. 2. Understand why plants are necessary for the existence of life on earth. 3. Describe the characteristics of a plant....

BOTN 21 (General Botany) Lesson 1.1: Botany and the Importance of Plants Learning Objectives After taking this lesson, you should be able to: 1. Define Botany. 2. Understand why plants are necessary for the existence of life on earth. 3. Describe the characteristics of a plant. 4. Cite and describe the different sub-disciplines of Botany 5. Explain the steps in the scientific method. What is Botany? Subdiscipline of biology Greek words: botanikos (botanical), botane (plant or herb), boskein (to feed) Dated back to the Stone Age period Study of plants Broad discipline - origin, diversity, structure, and internal processes of plants as well as their relationships with other organisms and with the nonliving physical environment  History of Botany Plants exist - early as 3.5 billion years ago Older than mankind Fossil records Primitive men were interested in plants food, clothing, shelter, and medicine Originated as herbalism Cultivation of medicinal and toxic plants Botany considered as one of the oldest branches of science Theophrastus (300 BC) Ancient Father of Botany Greek philosopher who first studied with Plato and then became a disciple of Aristotle, is credited with founding botany. Only two of an estimated 200 botanical treatises written by him are known to science: originally written in Greek:De causis plantarum and De historia plantarum. His basic concepts of morphology, classification, and the natural history of plants, were accepted without question for many centuries.He classified plants as trees, shrubs, and herbs,  Dioscorides (60 AD) Greek botanist, the most important botanical writer after Theophrastus. In his major work, a herbal in Greek, he described some 600 kinds of plants, with comments on their growth habit, form, andtheir medicinal properties. Unlike Theophrastus, who classified plants as trees, shrubs, and herbs, Dioscorides grouped his plants under three headings: as aromatic, culinary, and medicinal. His herbal, unique in that it was the first treatment of medicinal plants to be illustrated. Pliny (70 AD) Wrote Historia Naturalis—an encyclopedia of 37 volumes, compiled from some 2,000 works representing 146 Roman and 327 Greek authors. It has 16 volumes devoted to medicinal plants. He was one of the chief sources of modern knowledge of Roman gardens, early botanical writings, and the introduction into Italy of new horticultural and agricultural species. Albertus Magnus (1250 A.D.) grouped leafy plants into dicots and monocots  Brunfels, Bock and Fuchs “German Fathers of Otto Brunfels Botany” wrote books about Hieronymus new schemes in Bock classification of plants Leonhart Fuchs Robert Hooke Discovered the cell Antoine van Leeuwenhoek Recognized to have developed a microscope that can magnify objects more than 200 times the original size, making him able to first observe bacterial cells Carolus Linnaeus devised the binomial system of plant nomenclature  During the 19th and 20th centuries new techniques and protocols, more accurate optical microscopy and live cell imaging scanning and electron microscopy genomic analysis use of molecular markers DNA sequence  What is a plant? Rafflesia sp. - Composed of a single Euphorbia tirucalli flower, lacks stems and -has stems and roots, roots, parasitic Tillandsia sp. no leaves - No elaborate roots yet grows without soil  No solid definition Typically, plants: eukaryotic, multicellular, photosynthetic cell walls made up of cellulose Why humans and other animals are dependent on plants? 1. Plants produces oxygen Photosynthesis  2. Source of medicine - Nature’s medicine cabinets Catharanthus roseus - Source of vincristine and vinblastin Taxus brevifolius - Source of taxol 3. Provides food 4. Source of raw materials 5. Provides shelter Subdisciplines of Botany Subdiscipline Area of Study 1. Plant Taxonomy Description, naming, and classification of plants 2. Paleobotany Plant fossils 3. Plant Physiology Plant functions and processes 4. Plant Anatomy Internal plant structure (cells and tissues) Chemical compounds produced by plants and their 5. Plant Biochemistry interactions 6. Bryology Bryophytes (mosses, hornworts, and liverworts 7. Plant Genetics Heredity and variation in plants Structures of plant parts such as leaves, roots, and stems, 8. Plant Morphology including their evolution and development.  9. Palynology Pollen 10. Algology Algae 11. Plant Cell Biology cellsStructures, functions, and life processes of plant 12. Plant Ecology Interactions among plants and between plants and the environment 13. Plant Systematics Evolutionary relationships among different plant groups 14. Plant Molecular Structures and functions of important biological Biology molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids 15. Economic Botany Plants of commercial importance 16. Agronomy Field crops 17. Horticulture Fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants 18. Forestry Forest products and forest conservation  Scientific Method 1. Observation – utilizing one’s senses to generate questions or problems; driven by curiosity 2. Formulation of a hypothesis – Hypothesis is an educated guess as it uses inductive reasoning to provide a tentative explanation for the problem or natural event 3. Experimentation – conduct of an experiment to test the hypothesis 4. Data collection and analysis - data should be observable and objective; data are then subjected to statistical analysis to evaluate the validity of the results 5. Interpretation of data – a discussion of the data obtained to elucidate the possible reasons for the particular results of the experiment 6. Drawing of conclusion – come up with the decision whether to accept or reject the hypothesis based on the collected data 7. Sharing of results/findings - publishing results in reputable scientific journals or by presentation in conferences and other scientific fora