Why Study Botany?
Plants are essential in our lives as sources of food, shelter, medicines, clothing, furniture, pigments, flavours and pesticides. The life of all higher organisms, including animals, is at least partly dependent on plants. As photosynthetic organisms, plants are the primary producers in many food webs and contribute to the maintenance of the levels of several important atmospheric gases, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. Botany is a diverse, exciting and continually expanding field that concerns the study of the biology of plants. All modern biological disciplines can be applied to the field of plant biology, including biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and biotechnology. The importance of an improved understanding of plant biology has become apparent in recent years with the emergence of plant biotechnology and genetic engineering as a branch of science that has begun to affect fundamental aspects of our lives, especially the food we eat. We need to be able to make inform
