Botany, plant science(s), or plant biology (from Ancient Greek βοτάνη botane, "pasture, grass, or fodder" and that from βόσκειν boskein, "to feed or to graze"), a discipline of biology, is the science of plant life.[1][2][3] Traditionally, botany included the study of fungi, algae and viruses. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines including structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, chemical properties, and evolutionary relationships among taxonomic groups. Botany began with early human efforts to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making it one of the oldest branches of science. Today botanists study over 550,000 species of living organisms.
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History
Early botany
The history of botany begins with ancient writings on, and classifications of, plants. Such writings are found in several early cultures. Examples of early botanical works have been found in Ancient Indian sacred texts, ancient Zoroastrian writings,[4] and ancient Chinese works.
The Greco-Roman world produced a number of botanical works including Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum and Dioscorides' De Materia Medica. Theophrastus (c. 371–287 BC) has been frequently referred to as the ”father of botany”.[5]
Works from the medieval Muslim world included Ibn Wahshiyya's Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī's (828-896) the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassal's The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar (d. 1248) also wrote on botany.[6][7][8]
Early modern botany
German physician Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566) was one of the three founding fathers of botany, along with Otto Brunfels (1489–1534) and Hieronymus Bock (1498–1554) (also called Hieronymus Tragus).[9]
Valerius Cordus (1515–1544) authored a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546.[10] As early as the 16th century, the Italian Ulisse Aldrovandi was scientifically researching plants. In 1665, using an early microscope, Robert Hooke discovered cells in cork, and a short time later in living plant tissue. The Germans Jacob Theodor Klein and Leonhart Fuchs, the Swiss Conrad von Gesner, and the British author Nicholas Culpeper published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants.
During the 18th century, systems of classification became deliberately artificial and served only for the purpose of identification. These classifications are comparable to diagnostic keys, where taxa are artificially grouped in pairs by few, easily recognisable characters. The sequence of the taxa in keys is often totally unrelated to their natural or phyletic groupings. In the 18th century an increasing number of new plants had arrived in Europe, from newly discovered countries and the European colonies worldwide, and a larger amount of plants became available for study.[11]
In 1754 Carl von Linné (Carl Linnaeus) divided the plant Kingdom into 25 classes.[11] One, the Cryptogamia, included all plants with concealed reproductive parts (mosses, liverworts and ferns), and algae and fungi.[12]
The increased knowledge of anatomy, morphology and life cycles, lead to the realization that there were more natural affinities between plants, than the sexual system of Linnaeus indicated. Adanson (1763), de Jussieu (1789), and Candolle (1819) all proposed various alternative natural systems that were widely followed. The ideas of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution required adaptations to the Candollean system, which started the studies on evolutionary relationships and phylogenetic classifications of plants.
Botany was greatly stimulated by the appearance of the first “modern” text book, Matthias Schleiden's Grundzuge der Wissenschaftlichen, published in English in 1849 as Principles of Scientific Botany.[13] Carl Willdenow examined the connection between seed dispersal and distribution, the nature of plant associations, and the impact of geological history. The cell nucleus was discovered by Robert Brown in 1831.[14]
Modern botany
A considerable amount of new knowledge today is being generated from studying model plants like Arabidopsis thaliana. This weedy species in the mustard family was one of the first plants to have its genome sequenced. The sequencing of the rice (Oryza sativa) genome, its relatively small genome, and a large international research community have made rice an important cereal/grass/monocot model.[15] Another grass species, Brachypodium distachyon is also emerging as an experimental model for understanding the genetic, cellular and molecular biology of temperate grasses. Other commercially important staple foods like wheat, maize, barley, rye, pearl millet and soybean are also having their genomes sequenced. Some of these are challenging to sequence because they have more than two haploid (n) sets of chromosomes, a condition known as polyploidy, common in the plant kingdom. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (a single-celled, green alga) is another plant model organism that has been extensively studied and provided important insights into cell biology.
In 1998 the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group published a phylogeny of flowering plants based on an analysis of DNA sequences from most families of flowering plants. As a result of this work, major questions such as which families represent the earliest branches in the genealogy of angiosperms are now understood. Investigating how plant species are related to each other allows botanists to better understand the process of evolution in plants.[16] Despite the study of model plants and DNA, there is continual ongoing debate among taxonomists about how to classify plants into various taxa.[17]
Scope and importance of botany
As with other life forms in biology, plant life can be studied from different perspectives, from the molecular, genetic and biochemical level through organelles, cells, tissues, organs, individuals, plant populations, and communities of plants. At each of these levels a botanist might be concerned with the classification (taxonomy), structure (anatomy and morphology), or function (physiology) of plant life.[18]
Historically all living things were grouped as animals or plants,[19] and botany covered all organisms not considered animals. Some organisms included in the field of botany are no longer considered to belong to the plant (plantae) kingdom, which obtain their energy via photosynthesis, – these include bacteria (studied in bacteriology), fungi (mycology) including lichen-forming fungi (lichenology), non-chlorophyte algae (phycology) and viruses (virology). However, attention is still given to these groups by botanists, and fungi (including lichens), and photosynthetic protists are usually covered in introductory botany courses.[20]
The study of plants is vital because they are a fundamental part of life on Earth, which generates the oxygen, food, fibres, fuel and medicine that allow humans and other life forms to exist. Through photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that in large amounts can affect global climate. Just as importantly for us, plants release oxygen into the atmosphere during photosynthesis. Additionally, they prevent soil erosion and are influential in the water cycle. A good understanding of plants is crucial to the future of human societies as it allows us to:[21]
- Understand how crucial plants (the producers) are in supplying the world with oxygen
- Produce food to feed an expanding population (the consumers)
- Understand fundamental life processes
- Produce medicine and materials to treat diseases and other ailments
- Understand environmental changes more clearly
Paleobotanists study ancient plants in the fossil record. It is believed that early in the Earth's history, the evolution of photosynthetic plants altered the global atmosphere of the earth, changing the ancient atmosphere by oxidation.[21]
Human nutrition
Virtually all foods eaten come from plants, either directly from staple foods and other fruit and vegetables, or indirectly through livestock or other animals, which rely on plants for their nutrition. Plants are the fundamental base of nearly all food chains because they use the energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil and atmosphere, converting them into a form that can be consumed and utilized by animals; this is what ecologists call the first trophic level. Botanists also study how plants produce food we can eat and how to increase yields and therefore their work is important in mankind's ability to feed the world and provide food security for future generations, for example, through plant breeding. Botanists also study weeds, plants which are considered to be a nuisance in a particular location. Weeds are a considerable problem in agriculture, and botany provides some of the basic science used to understand how to minimize 'weed' impact in agriculture and native ecosystems. Ethnobotany is the study of the relationships between plants and people, and when this kind of study is turned to the investigation of plant-people relationships in past times, it is referred to as archaeobotany or paleoethnobotany.
Fundamental life processes
Botanical research has long had relevance to the understanding of fundamental biological processes other than just botany. Fundamental life processes such as cell division and protein synthesis can be studied using plants without the moral issues that come with conducting studies upon animals or humans. Gregor Mendel discovered the genetic laws of inheritance in this fashion by studying Pisum sativum (pea) inherited traits such as shape. What Mendel learned from studying plants has had far reaching benefits outside of botany. Similarly, Barbara McClintock discovered 'jumping genes' by studying maize.[22]
Medicine and materials
Many medicinal and recreational drugs, like tetrahydrocannabinol, caffeine, and nicotine come directly from the plant kingdom. Others are simple derivatives of botanical natural products; for example, aspirin is based on the pain killer salicylic acid which originally came from the bark of willow trees. As well, the narcotic analgesics such as morphine are derived from the opium poppy.[23] There may be many novel cures for diseases provided by plants, waiting to be discovered. Popular stimulants like coffee, chocolate, tobacco, and tea also come from plants. Most alcoholic beverages come from fermenting plants such as barley (beer), rice (sake) and grapes (wine).
Plants also provide us with many natural materials, such as hemp, cotton, wood, paper, linen, vegetable oils, some types of rope, and rubber. The production of silk would not be possible without the cultivation of the mulberry plant. Sugarcane, rapeseed, soy and other plants with a highly fermentable sugar or oil content have recently been put to use as sources of biofuels, which are important alternatives to fossil fuels (see biodiesel).
Environmental changes
Plants can also help us understand changes in on our environment in many ways:
- Understanding habitat destruction and species extinction is dependent on an accurate and complete catalog of plant systematics and taxonomy.
- Plant responses to ultraviolet radiation can help us monitor problems like ozone depletion.
- Analyzing pollen deposited by plants thousands or millions of years ago can help scientists to reconstruct past climates and predict future ones, an essential part of climate change research.
- Recording and analyzing the timing of plant life cycles are important parts of phenology used in climate-change research.
In many different ways, plants can act a little like the 'miners' canary', an early warning system alerting us to important changes in our environment. In addition to these practical and scientific reasons, plants are extremely valuable as recreation for millions of people who enjoy gardening, horticultural and culinary uses of plants every day.
Subdisciplines of botany
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Notable botanists
- Theophrastus (c. 371–c. 287 BC), "The Father of Botany", established botanical science through his lecture notes, Enquiry into Plants.
- Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40-90 AD), Greek physician, pharmacologist, toxicologist and botanist, author of De Materia Medica (Regarding Medical Matters).
- Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī (828-896), Persian botanist, historian, geographer, astronomer, mathematician, and founder of Arabic botany.
- Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati (c. 1200), Andalusian-Arab botanist and agricultural scientist, and a pioneer in experimental botany.
- Ibn al-Baitar (1197-1248), Andalusian-Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist, physician, and author of one of the largest botanical encyclopedias.
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian polymath; a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.
- Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of Binomial nomenclature; known as the father of modern taxonomy and also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.
- Aimé Bonpland (1773–1858), French explorer and botanist, who accompanied Alexander von Humboldt during five years of travel in Latin America.
- Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778–1841), Swiss botanist, originated the idea of "Nature's war", which influenced Charles Darwin.
- David Douglas (1799–1834), Scottish botanical explorer of North America and China, who imported many ornamental plants into Europe.
- Richard Spruce (1817–1893), English botanist and explorer who carried out a detailed study of the Amazon flora.
- Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), English botanist and explorer; second winner of Darwin Medal.
- Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–1884), Austrian Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants.
- Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895), English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution; third winner of Darwin Medal.
- Charles Sprague Sargent (1841–1927), American botanist, the first director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University.
- Agustín Stahl (1842–1917), Puerto Rican doctor, who conducted investigations and experiments in the fields of botany, ethnology, and zoology in the Caribbean region.
- Luther Burbank (1849–1926), American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science.
- George Ledyard Stebbins, Jr. (1906–2000), American widely regarded as one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century, developed a comprehensive synthesis of plant evolution incorporating genetics.
- Carlos Muñoz Pizarro (1913–1976), Chilean botanist, known for his studies of the Chilean flora, and its conservation.
- Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001), American botanist and explorer, known as "The Father of Ethnobotany", Linnean Society gold medal winner.
See also
- Bibliography of biology
- Botanical garden and List of botanical gardens
- Dendrochronology
- Edible Flowers
- Flowers and List of flowers
- Genomics of domestication
- Herbs
- Herbchronology
- History of plant systematics
- History of phycology
- List of botanical journals
- List of botanists
- List of Russian botanists
- List of botanists by author abbreviation
- List of domesticated plants
- List of systems of plant taxonomy
- Plant community
- Plant sexuality
- Seeds
- Soil science
- Trees
- Vegetation
- Weed science
- Zoology
Notes
- ^ Liddell & Scott 1940.
- ^ Gordh & Headrick 2001, p. 134.
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary 2012.
- ^ Iyer 2009, p. 117.
- ^ Grene & Depew 2004, p. 11.
- ^ Dallal 2010, p. 197.
- ^ Panaino 2002, p. 93.
- ^ Levey 1973, p. 116.
- ^ National Museum of Wales 2007.
- ^ Cordus n.d..
- ^ a b Capon 2005, pp. 220-223.
- ^ Hoek, Mann & Jahns 2005, p. 9.
- ^ Morton 1981, p. 377.
- ^ Harris 1999, pp. 76-81.
- ^ Devos & Gale 2000.
- ^ Chase et al. 2003, pp. 399–436.
- ^ Capon 2005, p. 223.
- ^ Addis Ababa University n.d..
- ^ Chapman et al. 2001, p. 56.
- ^ Capon 2005, pp. 10-11.
- ^ a b Abdul Wali Khan University n.d..
- ^ Ben-Menahem 2009, p. 5369.
- ^ Mann 1987, pp. 186-87.
Bibliography
Web-based
- "Early Herbals – The German Fathers of Botany". National Museum of Wales. July 4, 2007. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/852/?article_id=131. Retrieved February 19, 2012.
- "Department of Botany Brief". Abdul Wali Khan University. http://www.awkum.edu.pk/Departments/Botany/Botany_Brief.html. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
- "Botany". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=botany&searchmode=none. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
- "Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management Program Unit". Addis Ababa University. http://www.aau.edu.et/index.php/plant-biology-and-biodiversity-overview. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
- Cordus, Valerius. "Science and Its Times: 1450-1699 Summary". Book Rags. http://www.aau.edu.et/index.php/plant-biology-and-biodiversity-overview. Retrieved February 19, 2012.
Books & journals
Popular science
- Attenborough, David (1995). The Private Life of Plants. London: Britsh Broadcasting Corporation (TV), Edbury Publishing - BBC Books (print). ISBN 0563370238.
- Bellamy, David (1972). Bellamy on Botany. London: Edbury Publishing - BBC Books. ISBN 0563106662.
- Ben-Menahem, Ari (2009). Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. 1. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 3540688327.
- Capon, Brian (2005). Botany for Gardeners (2nd ed.). Portland, OR: Timber Publishing. ISBN 0881926558.
- Capon, Brian (2010). Botany for Gardeners (3rd ed.). Portland, OR: Timber Publishing. ISBN 160469095X.
- Cohen, Joel E. (1996). How Many People Can the Earth Support?. London: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0393314952.
- Dallal, Ahmad (2010). Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300159110. http://books.google.com/books?id=97l0L7zKagkC&lpg=PT197&dq=Ab%C5%AB%20%E1%B8%A4an%C4%ABfa%20D%C4%ABnawar%C4%AB&pg=PT197#v=onepage&q=Ab%C5%AB%20%E1%B8%A4an%C4%ABfa%20D%C4%ABnawar%C4%AB&f=false.
- Grene, Marjorie Glicksman; Depew, David J. (2004). The Philosophy of Biology: An Episodic History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64371-6.
- Halle, Francis (2002). In Praise of Plants. Portland, OR: Timber Publishing. ISBN 0881925500.
- Iyer, Meena (2009). Faith & Philosophy of Zoroastrianism. Delhi, India: Kalpaz Publications. ISBN 9788178357249.
- King, John (1997). Reaching for the Sun: How Plants Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521587387.
- Morton, A. G. (1981). History of Botanical Science. Academic Press. ISBN 0125083807 (hardback), 0125083823 (paperback).
- Pakenham, Thomas (1996). Meetings with Remarkable Trees. London: Random House. ISBN 0375752684.
- Pakenham, Thomas (2002). Remarkable Trees of the World. London: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0393049116.
- Pollan, Michael (2001). The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-eye View of the World. New York: Public Broadcasting System (TV), Random House (print). ISBN 0375501290.
- Thomas, Barry A. (1981). The Evolution of Plants and Flowers. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312272715.
- Walker, David (1992). Energy, Plants and Man (2nd ed.). Sheffield: Oxygraphics Ltd. ISBN 1870232054.
Academic and scientific
- Crawford, R. M. M. (1988). Studies in Plant Survival: An Ecophysical Examination of Plant Distribution (Studies in Ecology). Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd. ISBN 063201475X.
- Chapman, Jasmin; Horsfall, Peter; O'Brien, Pat; Murphy, Jan; MacDonald, Averil (2001). Science Web. Cheltenham, GB: Nelson Thornes. ISBN 0174387466.
- Chase, Mark W.; Bremer, Birgitta; Bremer, Kåre; Reveal, James L.; Soltis, Douglas E.; Soltis, Pamela S.; Stevens, Peter S. (2003). [The Linnean Society of London "An Update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Classification for the Orders and Families of Flowering Plants: APG II"] (PDF). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society (The Linnean Society of London) 141. The Linnean Society of London.
- Devos, Katrien M.; Gale, M. D. (May 2000). "Genome Relationships: The Grass Model in Current Research". The Plant Cell (American Society of Plant Physiologists) 12 (5): 637–646. doi:10.2307/3870991. JSTOR 3870991. PMC 139917. PMID 10810140. http://www.plantcell.org/cgi/content/full/12/5/637.
- Gordh, Gordon; Headrick, D. H. (2001). A Dictionary of Entomology. Cambridge, MA: CABI Publishing. ISBN 0851992919. http://books.google.com/books?id=d0XSwMJLDg4C&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=botane+boskein+botany&source=bl&ots=fL-rp6eaeg&sig=2ENEbYBu734YSMUGSXEP_0LQnYI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dEFIT5__OsWfOrb9sPoN&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=botane%20boskein%20botany&f=false.
- Harris, Henry (1999). The Birth of the Cell. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300082951.
- Hoek, Christiaan; Mann, D. G.; Jahns, H. M. (2005). Algae: An Introduction to Phycology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521304199. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xuUoiFesSHMC&printsec=frontcover.
- Levey, Martin (1973). Early Arabic Pharmacology: An Introduction Based on Ancient and Medieval Sources. Leiden: Brill Archive. ISBN 9789004037960. http://books.google.com/books?id=LtYUAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA116&dq=%22Ibn%20al-Baitar%22&pg=PA116#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). Botane (βοτάνη). Oxford: Clarendon Press via Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dbota%2Fnh.
- Mann, J. (1987). Secondary Metabolism, 2nd ed.. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198555296.
- Matthews, R. E. F. (1992). Fundamentals of Plant Virology. Waltham, MA: Academic Press. ISBN 0124805582.
- Mauseth, James D. (2003). Botany : An Introduction to Plant Biology (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning. ISBN 0763721344.
- Mauseth, James D. (2008). Botany : An Introduction to Plant Biology (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning. ISBN 0763753459.
- Panaino, Antonio (2002). Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena: Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project, Held in Chicago, USA, October 27-31, 2000. Bologna: Mimesis Edizioni. ISBN 9788884831071. http://books.google.com/books?id=hUNFLpQSqbkC&lpg=PA93&dq=%22First%2C%20the%20books%20of%20the%20Nabatean%20corpus%20themselves%20claim%20to%20be%20translations%20from&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Raven, Peter H.; Curtis, Helena (1970). Biology of Plants (1st ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. ASIN B000GR7R0I.
- Ridge, Irene (2002). Plants. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199255482.
- Strange, Richard N. (2003). Introduction to Plant Pathology. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0470849738.
- Walter, Heinrich (1985). Vegetation of the Earth (3rd revised ed.). New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0387137483.
- Willis, Kathy; McElwain, Jenny (2002). The Evolution of Plants. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198500653.
- Environmental botany
- Crawley, Michael J. (1997). Plant Ecology (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Ltd. ISBN 0632036397.
- Ennos, Roland; Sheffield, Elizabeth (2000). Plant Life. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Ltd. ISBN 0865427372.
- Everitt; Lonard; Little, C. R. (2007). Weeds in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press. ISBN 0896726142.
- Richards, P. W. (1996). The Tropical Rainforest (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521421942.
- Stace, Clive Anthony (1997). A New Flora of the British Isles (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521589355.
- Plant physiology
- Bowsher, Caroline G.; Steer, M. W.; Tobin, A. K. (2008). Plant Biochemistry (2nd ed.). New York: Garland Science, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0815341210.
- Buchanan, Bob B.; Gruissem, Wilhelm; Jones, Russell L. (2000). Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of Plants. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0943088399.
- Fitter, Alastair H.; Hay, Robert K. M. (2001). Environmental Physiology of Plants (3rd ed.). New York: Harcourt Publishers, Academic Press. ISBN 0122577663.
- Lambers, Hans; Chapin III, Francis Stuart; Pons, Thijs Leendert (1998). Plant Physiological Ecology. New York: Springer Science. ISBN 0387983260.
- Lambers, Hans; Chapin III, Francis Stuart; Pons, Thijs Leendert (2008). Plant Physiological Ecology (2nd ed.). New York: Springer Science. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-78341-3. ISBN 0387703486.
- Lawlor, David W. (2000). Photosynthesis (3rd ed.). New York: Garland Science. ISBN 1859961576.
- Salisbury; Ross, Cleon W. (1992). Plant Physiology (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 0534151620.
- Taiz, Lincoln; Zeiger, Eduardo (1991). Plant Physiology. Redwood City, CA: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing. ISBN 080530245X.
- Taiz, Lincoln; Zeiger, Eduardo (2002). Plant Physiology (3rd ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. ISBN 0878938230.
- Taiz, Lincoln; Zeiger, Eduardo (2006). Plant Physiology (4th ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. ISBN 0878938567.
- Taiz, Lincoln; Zeiger, Eduardor (2010). Plant Physiology (5th ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. ISBN 0878938664.
External links
- Botany at the Open Directory Project
- Botany databases at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
- Directory of Plants (PDF)
- High quality pictures of plants and information about them from Catholic University of Leuven
- Native Plant Information Network
- USDA plant database
- The Virtual Library of Botany
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