Botany, also called plant science(s), plant biology or phytology, is
the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant
scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field.
The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη
(botanÄ") meaning "pasture", "grass", or "fodder"; βοτάνη is in
turn derived from βόσκειν (boskein), "to feed" or "to graze".
Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae
by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these
three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of
the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, 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.Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism
with the efforts of early humans to identify â€" and later cultivate
â€" edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making it one of the
oldest branches of science. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to
monasteries, contained plants of medical importance. They were
forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities,
founded from the 1540s onwards. One of the earliest was the Padua
botanical garden. These gardens facilitated the academic study of
plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the
beginnings of plant taxonomy, and led in 1753 to the binomial system
of Carl Linnaeus that remains in use to this day.In the 19th and 20th
centuries, new techniques were developed for the study of plants,
including methods of optical microscopy and live cell imaging,
electron microscopy, analysis of chromosome number, plant chemistry
and the structure and function of enzymes and other proteins. In the
last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the
techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and
proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Botany Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter