Botanical Sciences. Botany is a branch of plant science. What does botany study?

Who is a botanist? This foreign word today it is often pronounced in Everyday life. But at the same time it is used rather in a humorous, figurative sense. And sometimes it also has an offensive, derogatory connotation. What caused negative reviews about nerds? This, as well as several interpretations of this word, will be discussed in the article.

Scientist and teacher

Dictionaries give several meanings for “botany.” Here are two of them, quite close in meaning:

1. A person who has been educated in the science of botany, as well as one who is engaged in this science in professional basis. Example: The expression “struggle for existence,” as well as the very concept of struggle in nature, was introduced into science a long time ago, mainly by botanists.
2. In the second meaning, a botanist is one who teaches botany as a school subject. Example: The young and talented botanist had been ill for the second month, and the students who loved him really missed his unusual lessons.

What is botany?

Understanding who a botanist is, it seems that it would be appropriate to talk about the meaning of the word “botany”. The dictionary gives three shades of interpretation of this word:

1. The scientific discipline that deals with the study of plants. Example: Theophrastus, who was a student of Aristotle and lived in the 4th-3rd centuries, is considered the “Father of Botany”. BC e.
2. Academic subject(at school and university), which contains theoretical basis specified scientific discipline. Example: In Russian schools, botany is studied in some programs in grades 5-6, and in others in grades 6-7.
3. In conversation, this is the name given to a textbook that sets out the basics of botany as a science. Example: Opening his briefcase in class, Alyosha discovered that he had forgotten his botany at home.

Primitive botanists

Turns out, primitive people were somewhat of a nerd. After all, they had a lot of information about plants, as this was dictated by vital necessity. After all, they constantly had to deal with food, medicinal, and poisonous plants. Thus, knowledge about them was essentially a matter of survival.

The first books, which described not only plants useful to humans, were written by Greek naturalists. Philosophers considered plants as part of nature and tried to understand their essence and systematize them.

Aristotle

Before Aristotle, researchers were mainly interested in medicinal plants and those that were of economic value. Whereas this learned Greek in the 4th century. BC e. for the first time I thought about their place in nature in general.

From those few materials touching on the topic of plants that have survived to our time, it is clear that Aristotle recognized the existence of two kingdoms of the surrounding world: living and inanimate nature.

He attributed plants to the living kingdom. The scientist believed that they had a soul, although at a lower level of development than that of animals and humans. Aristotle saw in the nature of the animal and plant world general properties. For example, he wrote that with regard to some marine inhabitants it is difficult to say for sure whether it is a plant or an animal.

Father of Botany

This high title refers to Aristotle's student Theophrastus. His works are considered as a reduction into one system of knowledge inherent in practitioners Agriculture, medicine, as well as the works of scientists of Antiquity.

Theophrastus was the founder of botany, distinguishing it as an independent science. Describing the methods of using plants in medicine and agriculture, he also dealt with theoretical issues. The influence of this scientist’s works on the future development of botany was enormous for many centuries.

Not a single scientist Ancient world It was not possible to rise above him either in describing the forms of plants or in understanding their nature. Of course, judging from the point of view of the modern level of knowledge, some of Theophrastus’s provisions were naive and unscientific.

After all, at that time scientists did not have high research techniques and did not conduct scientific experiments. But it cannot be denied that the level of knowledge that the “father of botany” achieved was very significant. Botany was formed as a coherent system of knowledge about plants by the 17th-18th centuries.

Other meanings

It should be noted that dictionaries also indicate other meanings of the word “nerd”, which is used as slang, having a figurative, dismissive and humorous meaning. There are two options here:

1. A botanist is a person who is engaged in study, intellectual development, mental labor, doing all this to the detriment of many other realities of life. He neglects social connections, rest, entertainment, and personal life. Such a “nerd” is distinguished by great intelligence, but in communicating with others he is very awkward, does not share the hobbies of his peers, and cannot fight back aggression. As a result, he is often subjected to ridicule; he is called a bore, a nerd, a bookworm. Mostly slang word“nerd” as well as “nerd” is used by schoolchildren and students to refer to their fellow students. “Nerds” are characterized by a stereotypical appearance: they are a physically poorly developed young man, unfashionably or ridiculously dressed, with an unfashionable haircut, and wearing glasses. Sometimes adults who fall under an external stereotype are also called this word. Example: According to Irina, calling a person a “nerd” while mocking him can only be done by someone who is very far along in his development.
2. Another slang meaning for a botanist is someone who is poorly versed in a field, such as poetry or painting. Example: Despite the fact that Oleg loved to visit art galleries, he was a complete nerd when it came to art.

Botany (from Greek botanikós - related to plants, botánē - grass, plant)

plant science. B. covers a huge range of problems: patterns of external and internal structure (morphology and anatomy) of plants, their taxonomy, development over geological time (evolution) and family relationships (phylogeny), features of past and modern distribution over the earth’s surface (plant geography), relationships with the environment (plant ecology), the composition of vegetation (phytocenology, or geobotany), possibilities and ways of economic use of plants (botanical resource science, or economic botany). According to the objects of research in Belarus, they distinguish phycology (algology) - the science of algae, mycology - of mushrooms, lichenology - of lichens, bryology - of mosses, etc.; the study of microscopic organisms, mainly from the plant world (bacteria, actinomycetes, some fungi and algae), is distinguished in special science- microbiology. Plant pathology deals with plant diseases caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi.

The main botanical discipline - Plant taxonomy divides the diversity of the plant world into those subordinate to each other. natural groups- taxa (classification), establishes a rational system of their names (nomenclature) and clarifies related (evolutionary) relationships between them (phylogeny). In the past, taxonomy was based on the external morphological characteristics of plants and their geographical distribution, but now taxonomists also widely use the signs of the internal structure of plants, the structural features of plant cells, their chromosomal apparatus, as well as chemical composition and ecological characteristics of plants. Establishing the species composition of plants (flora) of a certain territory is usually called floristry; identifying areas of distribution (areas) of individual species, genera and families is called chorology (phytochorology). Study of woody and shrub plants sometimes separated into a special discipline - dendrology (See Dendrology).

Closely related to taxonomy is Plant Morphology, which studies the form of plants in the process of individual (ontogenesis) and historical (phylogeny) development. In a narrow sense, morphology studies the external form of plants and their parts; in a broader sense, it includes plant anatomy (See Plant Anatomy), which studies their internal structure, embryology, which studies the formation and development of the embryo, and cytology, which studies the structure plant cell. Some sections of plant morphology are distinguished into special disciplines in connection with their applied or theoretical significance: organography - description of parts and organs of plants, palynology - study of pollen and spores of plants, carpology - description and classification of fruits, teratology - study of anomalies and deformities (terats) in structure of plants. There are comparative, evolutionary, and ecological morphologies of plants.

A number of branches of biology, sometimes united under common name Plant ecology. In a narrower sense, ecology studies the influence of the habitat on a plant, as well as the various adaptations of plants to the characteristics of this environment. On the earth's surface, plants form certain communities, or phytocenoses, repeating over more or less significant territories (forests, steppes, meadows, savannas, etc.). The study of these communities is carried out by the branch of biology, called geobotany in the USSR (see Geobotany) or phytocenology (abroad it is often called phytosociology). Depending on the object of study, geobotany distinguishes forest science, meadow science, tundra science, swamp science, etc. In a broader sense, geobotany is closely related to the study of ecosystems, or biogeocenology (See Biogeocenology) , studying the relationships between vegetation, wildlife, soil and underlying rocks. This complex is called Biogeocenosis. Distribution of certain plant species on the surface globe studies the Geography of plants, and the features of the distribution of plant cover on Earth depending on modern conditions and the historical past - Botanical Geography.

The science of fossil plants - Paleobotany, or phytopaleontology, is of paramount importance for reconstructing the history of the development of the plant world. Paleobotanical data have vital importance to solve many questions of taxonomy, morphology (including anatomy) and historical geography of plants. Its data is also used by geology (historical geology and stratigraphy).

The beneficial properties of wild plants and the possibilities of their cultivation are studied by economic botanicals (economic botanicals, botanical resource science). Ethnobotany is closely related to economic biology—the study of the use of plants by various ethnic groups population of the globe. An important section of applied biology is the study of wild relatives cultivated plants that have valuable properties (for example, immunity to disease, drought resistance, etc.).

Plant physiology (See Plant physiology) and biochemistry (See Biochemistry) Plants are not always classified as biology, since many physiological and biochemical processes occurring in plants are similar or even identical to processes occurring in animal organisms and are studied by similar methods. However, the biochemistry and physiology of plants differ in a number of specific features that are exclusively or almost exclusively characteristic of plants. Therefore, it is not easy to distinguish the physiology and biochemistry of plants from biology proper, especially since the physiological and biochemical characteristics of plants can be considered as taxonomic characters and, therefore, be of interest to plant taxonomists. These same features are extremely important for understanding the problems of ecology and geobotany, plant geography and botanical geography, economic biology, etc. Plant genetics is usually also considered as a branch of general genetics (See Genetics) , although some of its chapters (population genetics, cytogenetics) are closely related to systematics, especially biosystematics (See Biosystematics) , plant ecology and geobotany.

The boundaries between the above sections of B. are largely arbitrary, because their methods often overlap, and data are mutually used. It is difficult to determine the place of such sciences as physiological anatomy and environmental physiology, or to separate the use chemical features plants in systematics (chemosystematics) from comparative plant biochemistry; Along with this process, there is also a very narrow specialization of individual botanical sections.

Biology is closely related to many other sciences—geology through paleobotany and indicator geobotany (the use of the characteristics of certain plants and their communities as indicators of certain minerals); with chemistry - through biochemistry and physiology, economic biology and pharmacognosy; with soil science and physical geography - through ecology and geobotany; with technical sciences - through economic botany. Biochemistry is the natural historical basis of agriculture and forestry, green construction in cities, resorts, and parks; it resolves many issues in the food, textile, pulp and paper, microbiological, and woodworking industries. However, the most important task of biology is to study the patterns of development and protection of the human habitat—the biosphere and, above all, the plant world—the phytosphere.

B. uses both observation and comparative, historical, and experimental methods, including the collection and compilation of collections, observation in nature and in experimental areas, experiment in nature and in specialized laboratories, and mathematical processing of the information obtained. Along with classical methods of recording certain characteristics of the plants being studied, the entire arsenal of modern chemical, physical and cybernetic research methods is used.

The main stages of the development of botany. The origins of biology. As a coherent system of knowledge about plants, biology took shape by the 17th and 18th centuries, although much information about plants was also known to primitive man, because his life was connected with useful, mainly food, medicinal and poisonous plants. Texts that can to some extent be considered botanical are known from the oldest written monuments of Mesopotamia (Sumer, Babylon, Assyria) and the Nile Valley ( Ancient Egypt). These texts, as well as the legendary Chinese herbal book Ben Cao, dated to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e., were rather essays on applied biology, because mainly contained information about food and medicinal plants. The first books in which plants were described not only in connection with their usefulness were the works of the Greek scientists Aristotle and especially his student Theophrastus, who made the first attempt in the history of science to classify plants, dividing them into trees, shrubs, subshrubs and herbs; Among the latter, he distinguished between perennials, biennials and annuals. Theophrastus was called "the father of B." He clearly understood the structure of a flower, in particular the position of the ovary in it, and the differences between fused-petaled and free-petaled corollas. His Inquiry into Plants describes about 480 plants. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder in his “Natural History” cited all the information about nature known to his contemporaries; he mentioned about 1000 plant species, describing them quite accurately.

For about 1,500 years, from the time of Theophrastus and Pliny the Elder, the accumulation of knowledge about plants took place mainly outside Europe. In India in the 1st millennium BC. e. the so-called "Ayurveda" is the "science of life", which includes a description of many medicinal plants India. Commentaries and additions to Ayurveda are contained in the writings of Indian doctors Charaka (10-8 centuries BC), Sushrut and Vadbaka (8-7 centuries BC). Arab expansion in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD. e. significantly expanded the horizons of antiquity. Special meaning had the works of the Tajik scientist Ibn Sina (Avicenna), who described in the essay “Canon medical science» many plants previously unknown to Europeans. The only achievement of European science in the field of biology were the works German philosopher and the naturalist Albert von Bolstedt (Albert the Great), who established, in particular, on the basis of the difference in the structure of the stem, the difference between monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants.

B. towards the end of the Middle Ages. During the era of great discoveries, interest in plants increased significantly, so far mainly as a source of medicines, spices and new food products. “Herbal books” appeared (and soon were published) with descriptions of an ever-increasing number of plants, the first “dry gardens” - herbariums (See Herbarium) were created, real botanical gardens were organized. All this contributed to the accumulation of new facts and the creation of the first general concepts, mainly in the field of plant classification. Thus, the German botanist O. Brunfels distinguishes between “perfect” plants, i.e. those bearing flowers, and “imperfect” ones, i.e. those lacking them; Italian physician and botanist A. Cesalpino (in Latin pronunciation Cesalpin), who published the most important botanical work of the era - the book “On Plants”, in the preface to it, made an attempt to classify plants, drawing in addition to the usual at that time division of plants into trees, shrubs and grass also features flowers, fruits and seeds. The Swiss botanist Johann Baugin (Jean Bohin), in his General History of Plants, published (1650) after his death, described about 5,000 plants. B. owes his brother Kaspar Baugin the creation of binary nomenclature, that is, the name of each plant in two words, the first of which denotes the generic name, and the second the species name. As is known, this order of naming plants was subsequently legalized by C. Linnaeus (See Linnaeus) and exists to this day.

B. in the 16th and 17th centuries. This period is characterized not only by the development of taxonomy. The invention of the microscope led to the discovery of the cellular structure of plants. The first observations in this area were made by the English scientist R. Hooke. Later, the Italian M. Malpighi and the Englishman N. Grew laid the foundations of plant anatomy (See Plant anatomy). The Dutchman J. B. van Helmont conducted the first experiment in plant physiology by growing a willow branch in a barrel and establishing that its almost 40-fold increase in weight over 5 years was not accompanied by any significant decrease in the weight of the earth. The German botanist R. Camerarius was the first to substantiate the presence of the sexual process in plants.

In Russia in the 15th-17th centuries. translated from Greek, Latin and European languages ​​and rewritten (and later printed) descriptions of medicinal plants (“herbalists”, or, as they were called then, “vertograds”). Many of them were edited taking into account local conditions; mainly, indications were added to the places where certain plants grew (for example: “to grow in Rus' in Dragomilov”).

B. in the 18th century. Discoveries in various areas of Belgium in the 18th century and the development of various concepts bore fruit later. Nevertheless, this century can mainly be characterized as a century of botanical systematics and is associated mainly with the name of the Swedish botanist K. Linnaeus. Based on its artificial system structure of a flower, Linnaeus divided the plant world into 24 classes. Linnaeus' system did not survive its creator for long, but its significance in the history of Byelorussia is enormous. For the first time, it was shown that each plant can be placed in a specific category in accordance with its characteristic characteristics. The truly titanic work done by Linnaeus formed the basis for all subsequent research in the field of plant taxonomy. Linnaeus's younger contemporaries were the French M. Adanson, J. Lamarck and especially the three de Jussieux brothers (Antoine, Bernard and Joseph) and their nephew Antoine Laurent, based on the works of Linnaeus (as well as on the works of D. Rey, K. Baugin and J. Tournefort), developed natural classifications plants, where certain systematic groups were based on signs of “kinship”, which, however, was understood as an indefinite “natural affinity”. Outstanding naturalists of the 18th century. paid a lot of attention general issues B. Thus, the Russian academician K.F. Wolf in his “Theory of Generation” (1759) showed the ways of forming plant organs and the transformation of some organs into others. These ideas especially occupied the German poet J. W. Goethe, who in 1790 published the book “Metamorphoses of Plants,” full of brilliant insights. The presence of sex in plants was finally established by German botanists I. Kölreuter, who obtained and carefully studied interspecific hybrids of tobacco, cloves and other plants, and also studied methods of pollination by insects, and K. Sprengel, who published the book “The Revealed Secret of Nature in the Structure and Fertilization of Flowers” "(1793).

In the 18th century there was intensive development in Russia scientific research, in particular in the Academy of Sciences created by Peter I in St. Petersburg. Botanical collections began for the first time in her Kunstkamera. In 1714, the Apothecary Garden was organized - the basis of the future Imperial Botanical Garden and the current Botanical Institute (See). Of particular importance for the development of Russian and world biology were the geographical expeditions of the Academy of Sciences, in which botanists took part: S. P. Krasheninnikov, who published “Description of the Land of Kamchatka,” I. G. Gmelin, the author of the 4-volume “Flora of Siberia,” one of the world's first "floras" of such a vast area. Valuable works about flora various areas Russia, together with data on useful plants, was collected by I. I. Lepekhin, N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky, P. S. Pallas and K. F. Ledebur.

B. in the 19th-20th centuries. 19th century was marked by the intensive development of natural science in general. All branches of biology also developed rapidly. The decisive influence on taxonomy was exerted by evolutionary theory C. Darwin a. Accepted by most botanists, Darwin's theory set them the task of creating a phylogenetic system of the plant world that would reflect the successive stages of development of the plant world. The first systems of the 19th century. Swiss botanists O. P. Decandolle and his son A. Decandolle, English botanists J. Bentham, W. Hooker and others (from 1825 to 1845 about 25 similar classification systems of the plant world were proposed) had not yet considered the problem of the origin of some groups of plants from others, but strived for the greatest “naturalness,” that is, to combine into groups of plants that are most similar to each other in the most important features of their organization. Operating with a huge number of plants from almost all continents, these systems (especially Bentham and Hooker and, partly, Decandolle) were so logically constructed that they have survived almost to the present day (the first - among English and, partly, North American botanists, the second - among botanists countries French). However, the future belonged to phylogenetic systems, the first of which (published in 1875) belongs to the German botanist A. W. Eichler. The most widespread system was developed by the German botanist A. Engler, who, together with his colleagues, in the 20-volume work “Natural Families of Plants” (1887-1911), brought the plant system to genus, and sometimes to species. Research conducted mainly in the first half of the 20th century showed that most of the principles that Engler based his system were false, but his work cannot be underestimated. Opponents of Engler's views were the American botanist C. E. Bessey, the German botanist H. Gallier and the English botanist J. Hutchinson. Their main disagreements with Engler related to the taxonomy of angiosperms (flowering plants), the most primitive group of which they considered polycarpids (such as magnolia), while Engler considered monocots to be the original group of angiosperms, and among dicotyledons - the so-called. catkin flowers (such as willows and poplars); His opponents were also Russian botanists H. Ya. Gobi, B. M. Kozo-Polyansky, A. A. Grossheim and others. last years There is some unanimity in the views of botanists on the principles of constructing a system of higher plants; the system developed by the Soviet botanist A.L. Takhtadzhyan has received wide recognition.

No less attention was paid in the 19th and early 20th centuries. and lower plants. As a result of the work of the mycologist H. G. Person, who worked in Germany and France, the Swedish lichenologist E. Acharius, Russian botanists L. S. Tsenkovsky, I. N. Gorozhankin, German mycologists A. de Bary and O. Brefeld, Russian mycologist M S. Voronin, Soviet botanist A. A. Yachevsky and many others collected extensive information about algae, fungi, lichens, which made it possible not only to construct their rational classification, but also to evaluate their importance in the biosphere. Mycology has received particular development, mainly in connection with the importance of fungi as pathogens of agricultural diseases. plants. The emergence of phytopathology (See Phytopathology) as a special discipline is also connected with this.

The study of the distribution of plants around the globe dates back to the 19th and early 20th centuries. The founder of plant geography, the German naturalist A. Humboldt, is the author of a number of works, of which the book “On the Patterns Observed in the Distribution of Plants” (vol. 1-2, 1816) attracted the most attention. The first attempt to describe the vegetation of the globe in connection with climate conditions was made by the German scientist A. Grisebach in his work “Vegetation of the Globe...” (1872). The Danish botanist E. Warming linked the distribution of plants with certain living conditions; his book “Ecological Geography of Plants” (1896) laid the foundations of a new science - plant ecology. Simultaneously with these works throughout the 19th century. hundreds of researchers carried out painstaking work to compile regional “floras”. Among the largest publications of this kind is “Flora of the East” by E. Boissier in 5 volumes. (1867-88) and “Flora of British India” by J. Hooker in 7 vols. (1875-97). The most thorough work in this area is “Flora of the USSR” in 30 volumes. (1934-64), published by the Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, edited by V. L. Komarov and B. K. Shishkin. The flora of almost all regions of the globe is described in relevant manuals, mainly regional “floras”. Of great importance for world science is the teaching of N. I. Vavilov about the centers of origin of cultivated plants (See Centers of origin of cultivated plants) and geographical patterns in the distribution of their hereditary characteristics (1926-27). In his works, Vavilov for the first time presented a picture of the evolution of the forms of cultivated plants in the few primary centers of their origin. As a result of the expeditions he organized, a valuable fund of the world's plant resources was collected, which made up a rich collection of plants stored in the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing.

The study of the taxonomy of a huge number of plants from all regions of the globe stimulated the development of work in the field of plant morphology. One of the first morphologists of the 19th century. There was an English botanist R. Brown, who showed that gymnosperms differ from angiosperms in having a bare ovule, explained the nature of the flower in cereals, and carried out a number of other works on morphology. Brown's work on embryology was continued by the Italian scientist J.B. Amici, the French botanist A. Brongniard, and especially the German scientist W. Hoffmeister, who described the process of fertilization in plants. Classic works The chamberlain was continued by his compatriot E. Strasburger and Russian scientists I. N. Gorozhankin, V. I. Belyaev and S. G. Navashin. Gorozhankin was the first to prove that nuclei from the pollen tube penetrate the egg. Belyaev predicted the existence of motile spermatozoa in gymnosperms, which were soon discovered by Japanese botanists S. Hirase in ginkgo and S. Ikeno in cycad. After the work of the Russian embryologist S. G. Navashin, who discovered double fertilization, the period of formation of plant embryology as an independent discipline was almost completed.

Plant anatomy, which began in the 17th century, began to develop especially intensively from the mid-19th century. Its successes are associated with the names of the German botanists H. Mohl and K. Sanio, who provided the first information about the microscopic structure of the body of higher plants. By the middle of the 19th century. In plant anatomy, two directions emerged, of which one was mainly interested in the problems of the structure of plants with their systematic position and evolution of structures, while the other paid more attention to the physiological and ecological significance of certain plant tissues. Among the figures of the first direction are the French F. E. van Tighem, J. Vesk and the German G. Zolereder, the author of the summary “Systematic Anatomy of Dicotyledons” (1899). The American E. Jeffrey, in his book “Anatomy of Woody Plants” (1917), tried to give a general picture of the evolution of anatomical structures in all higher plants. His students E. Sinnott, A. Eames and especially I. W. Bailey created the concept of the evolution of structure in higher plants, which is well linked with the ideas of C. E. Bessey, H. Gallier and J. Hutchinson. Among the anatomists of the second direction are German botanists S. Schwendener, G. Haberlandt, Soviet anatomists V. F. Razdorsky and V. G. Alexandrov.

Work in the field of ecology and geography of plants, as well as requests for forestry and grassland science led at the end of the 19th century. to the identification of a special area of ​​​​B., which in the USSR received the name geobotany, or phytocenology. The Russian and Soviet school of geobotanists was created by the works of S. I. Korzhinsky, I. K. Pachosky, G. I. Tanfilyev, G. F. Morozov, V. V. Alekhin, L. G. Ramensky, A. P. Shennikov and especially V.N. Sukachev. The urgent need for the economic development of the vast spaces of the USSR led to the fact that the problems of geobotany were among the most pressing. Therefore, geobotanists are the most numerous group of Soviet botanists.

The North American (F. Clements) and European (J. Braun-Blanquet, E. Rübel, A. Tansley) schools of phytocenology each developed in its own way, and only recently has there been some convergence of the points of view of Soviet and North American researchers.

The science of fossil plants is paleobotany, the origin of which can be dated back to the 18th century. (I. Scheuchzer, Switzerland), developed steadily in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th century The works of researchers working on all continents not only described tens of thousands of plant remains from all layers of sedimentary deposits, but also created a fairly harmonious system of now extinct plants, linked to their modern descendants. M. D. Zalessky, I. V. Palibin and A. N. Krishtofovich made a great contribution to the study of fossil plants found on the territory of the USSR.

Character traits modern stage development B.- blurring the lines between its individual sectors and their integration. Thus, in plant taxonomy, cytological, anatomical, embryological and biochemical methods. Methods of biochemistry and physiology are adopted by ecologists and geobotanists, resulting in the emergence of a complex science of the physiology of the plant community, the emergence of which was predicted back in the 20s. 20th century Russian scientist V.V. Alekhin and Swedish scientist E. Du Rieu and which is usually called coenophysiology. There is an increasing awareness of the need to take into account in geobotanical and environmental research the role of microorganisms - algae, fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes; Specialists of the relevant profile are increasingly working in contact with geobotanists and ecologists. This leads to an expansion of the field of activity of phycologists, bacteriologists and mycologists who study the organisms of interest to them in a natural environment.

Experimentation is used much more widely in those areas of biology where observation previously dominated. Work in the field of experimental systematics and geobotany has become widespread. In plant morphology, in addition to the usual experimental influences, the method of tissue culture, isolated from the influence of the organism as a whole, is widely used.

The development of new research methods based on advances in physics and chemistry has made it possible to solve problems that were previously inaccessible. So, as a result of using electron microscope, the resolving power of which has increased hundreds of times compared to other optical instruments, many new details of the structure of the plant cell have been revealed, which is successfully used not only in anatomy, but also in the taxonomy of plants. Methods of chromatography, cytophotometry and a number of others make it possible to carry out chemical tests with unprecedented speed and accuracy on microscopic objects, which is used in almost all areas of biology. Advances in molecular biology have to some extent contributed to the separation of the physiology and biochemistry of plants from general biology. At the same time, these achievements, which in the future will make it possible to reveal the molecular basis of ontogenesis and plant phylogeny, open new horizons in the field of plant systematics and morphology. There is still a large gap in our knowledge regarding those mechanisms that, while controlling the same for all cells of a given individual (or even species) genetic code, lead to striking differences between cells of different tissues.

At the same time, the attention of botanists is increasingly occupied by botanical problems on the scale of our entire planet. Issues of productivity of phytocenoses, their influence on the water and gas regime of the planet, problems of the cycle of substances, balance of energy and matter are solved on the basis of observations carried out using very accurate and increasingly improved instruments with automatic control. The global impact of humanity on nature, sometimes carried out without precise consideration of the possible consequences, makes these works of botanists vitally important for the fate of civilization.

Leading botanical institutions, international organizations, periodicals. The organization of scientific research in the field of biology in the USSR is determined the whole system botanical institutions under the jurisdiction of the USSR Academy of Sciences; Academies of Sciences of the Union Republics; departments of botany at universities, pedagogical, pharmaceutical and agricultural. higher educational institutions; botanical gardens of various departmental subordination; industry specialized (research) institutes, as well as the network of nature reserves operating in the USSR. The leading centers in individual branches of botanicals are the institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences: Botanical Institute named after. V. L. Komarova (Leningrad), Institute of Plant Physiology named after. K. A. Timiryazev (Moscow), Institute of Biochemistry named after. A. N. Bakh (Moscow), Institute of General Genetics, as well as Botanical Gardens. Botanical institutions are located in branches of the USSR Academy of Sciences and republican Academies of Sciences. Many of B.'s questions are studied by a number of institutions in the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Cultivated plants are studied at the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing named after. N.I. Vavilova (Leningrad) and in a number of its branches and strongholds.

In addition, there are specialized institutes: feed (Moscow), subtropical crops and green spaces(Azerbaijan), plant protection (Leningrad), All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Medicinal Plants (Moscow), etc. Botanical institutions are equipped with specialized laboratories, experimental stations and experimental bases. Some of them have herbariums.

Soviet botanists are united by the All-Union Botanical Society (with its numerous branches), the Moscow Society of Naturalists, and the Geographical Society USSR etc. At the Department general biology The Academy of Sciences of the USSR operates scientific problem councils on the study of flora and vegetation, biogeocenology, as well as the introduction and acclimatization of plants. In the USSR, the Botanical Journal of the USSR (since 1916), the journals Plant Physiology (since 1954), and Plant resources"(since 1965), "Mycology and Phytopathology" (since 1967), as well as numerous monographs, reference books, manuals and articles on various sections of B. Soviet botanists take part in the work of many foreign societies, journals, as well as conferences, symposia and congresses .

What does botany study?

Definition 1

Botany- (from Greek. botane- vegetable, greens, herb, plant) is a complex science that studies plants. It comprehensively examines their origin, development, structure (external and internal), classification, distribution on the earth's surface, ecology (interrelations and relations with surrounding factors), protection.

Like other sciences, botany has its own prehistory. Its origin can be traced back to ancient times, when people were just beginning to use plants for their practical needs (food, treatment, making clothes, housing). Enough for a long time Naturalists were engaged only in describing plants - their size, color, characteristics of individual organs, that is, for quite a long time botany had only a descriptive character. This section of biology was formed in the $17th-18th centuries. The first attempts to systematize the plant world became the beginning of the use in botany of the comparative descriptive method, with the help of which plants were not only described, but also compared according to external (morphological) characteristics. With the invention of the microscope, botany was born, and later, thanks to the intensive development of science and the improvement of microscopic technology, the experimental direction began to dominate.

Picture 1.

Plants- is a source of more than ten biologically active substances that affect the human and animal body, in particular when consumed as food. Since plants are integral to human life, they have become the object of close study.

All plants are divided into $2$ large groups:

1. lower plants, or thalli (thalom);
2. higher plants, or leafy plants.

Lower plants include algae.

TO higher plants include bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), pteridophytes (psilophytes, psilotes, horsetails and ferns), gymnosperms and angiosperms.

Lichens, fungi, and bacteria are studied separately.

Note 1

Modern botany- a multidisciplinary science that covers whole line sections: plant taxonomy, which deals with the classification of plants depending on similar general characteristics. It is divided into two parts: floristry and botanical geography. Floristry studies plant communities in a certain area. Botanical geography studies the distribution of plants on the globe.

Plant taxonomy- the main botanical discipline. She divides the entire plant world into separate groups and explains the family and evolutionary connections between them. This is an assignment from a special section of botany - phylogeny.

At first, researchers systematized plants only according to external (morphological) characteristics. Nowadays, for the taxonomy of plants, their internal characteristics are also used (features of the structure of cells: their chemical composition, chromosomal apparatus, environmental features). Plant morphology, which studies the structure of plants. This science is divided into microscopic morphology and macroscopic morphology (organography). Microscopic morphology studies the structure of plant cells and tissues, as well as embryology. Macroscopic morphology studies the organs and parts of plants.

Some sections of morphology were decided to be separated into separate disciplines:

• organography (studies plant organs),
• palynology (considers the structure of plant spores and pollen),
• carpology (deals with the classification of fruits),
• teratology (subject of study - deformities and anomalies in the structure of plants),
• plant anatomy, which studies the internal structure of plants;
• plant physiology, which studies the forms of plants in the process of their ontogenesis and phylogenesis, as well as the processes occurring in plants, their causes, patterns and relationships with environment. It is closely related to taxonomy.
• plant biochemistry, which studies the chemical processes in plants associated with growth and development.
• plant genetics, which studies the genetic changes in plants that occur with or without human intervention.
• phytocenology, which studies the Earth's vegetation, determines dynamic changes in nature, as well as their dependencies and patterns (vegetation is a combination of all the plants in one area that make up the landscape;
• geobotany, which studies ecosystems, that is, the relationships between plants, fauna and factors of inanimate nature (the whole complex is called biogeocenosis).
• plant ecology, which studies plants in relation to their habitat and determines the ideal conditions for plant life.
• paleobotany, which studies fossil plants to determine their evolutionary history.

Botany is also classified by objects of study into:

• algology - the science of algae,
• bryology, which studies mosses, etc.
• The study of microscopic organisms in the plant world was also separated into a separate discipline - microbiology.
• phytopathology - deals with plant diseases that can be caused by fungi, viruses or bacteria.

Note 2

Depending on the object being studied, special branches of botany were identified: forestry, meadow science, swamp science, tundra science and a number of similar disciplines.

Traditionally, botany includes mycology- the science of mushrooms (from the middle of the 20th century they began to be classified as a separate kingdom), as well as lichenology - the science that studies lichens.

Subject of study of botany- these are plants, their structure, development, family ties, the possibility of their rational economic use.

Problems of botany:

1. Studying plants to increase their resistance, productivity and endurance.
2. Identification of new plant species and their application.
3. Determination of the effect of plants on the human body.
4. Determining the role of humans in the development and preservation of the planet's vegetation.
5. Carrying out genetic transformation of plants.

Research methods in botany:

observation method- used at both microscopic and macroscopic levels. This method consists of establishing the individuality of the object being studied without artificial interference in its vital processes. The collected information is used for further research.

comparative method- used to compare the object being studied with similar objects, and to classify them, analyzing in detail similar and distinctive features in comparison with forms close to them.

experimental method- used to study objects or processes in specially created artificial conditions. Unlike the observation method, the experimental method provides for the special intervention of the experimenter in nature, which makes it possible to establish the consequences of the influence of certain factors on the object of study. The method can be used either in natural conditions, and in the laboratory.

monitoring is a method of constant monitoring of the state of individual objects and the course of certain processes. modeling is a method of demonstrating and studying certain processes and phenomena using their simplified simulation. It makes it possible to study processes that are difficult or impossible to reproduce experimentally, or to directly observe in living nature.

statistical method- based on statistical processing of quantitative material collected as a result of other studies (observations, experiments, modeling), which allows it to be comprehensively analyzed and certain patterns established.

Note 3

Botany is a science that studies the vegetation cover of the earth's surface at all levels - molecular, cellular, organismal, population.

Subject of research

Botany covers a wide range of problems: patterns of external and internal structure (morphology and anatomy) of plants, their taxonomy, development over geological time (evolution) and family relationships (phylogeny), features of past and modern distribution across the earth’s surface (plant geography), relationships with the environment (plant ecology), the composition of vegetation (phytocenology, or geobotany), possibilities and ways of economic use of plants (botanical resource science, or economic botany).

According to the objects of research in botany, phycology (algology) is distinguished - the science of algae, mycology - of mushrooms, lichenology - of lichens, bryology - of mosses, etc.; the study of microscopic organisms, mainly from the plant world (bacteria, actinomycetes, some fungi and algae), is classified as a special science - microbiology. Phytopathology deals with plant diseases caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi.

The main botanical discipline is plant taxonomy- divides the diversity of the plant world into subordinate natural groups - taxa (classification), establishes a rational system of their names (nomenclature) and clarifies the related (evolutionary) relationships between them (phylogeny). In the past, taxonomy was based on the external morphological characteristics of plants and their geographic distribution, but now taxonomists also widely use the characteristics of the internal structure of plants, the structural features of plant cells, their chromosomal apparatus, as well as the chemical composition and ecological characteristics of plants. Establishing the species composition of plants (flora) of a certain territory is usually called floristry, identifying areas of distribution (areas) of individual species, genera and families - chorology (phytochorology). The study of woody and shrubby plants is classified as a special discipline - dendrology.

Closely related to taxonomy is plant morphology, studying the form of plants in the process of individual (ontogenesis) and historical (phylogeny) development. In a narrow sense, morphology studies the external shape of plants and their parts; in a broader sense, it includes plant anatomy, which studies their internal structure, embryology, which studies the formation and development of the embryo, and cytology, which studies the structure of a plant cell. Some sections of plant morphology are distinguished into special disciplines in connection with their applied or theoretical significance: organography - description of parts and organs of plants, palynology - study of pollen and spores of plants, carpology - description and classification of fruits, teratology - study of anomalies and deformities (terats) in structure of plants. There are comparative, evolutionary, and ecological morphologies of plants.

A number of branches of botany, sometimes united under the general name, study plants in their relationship with their environment. plant ecology. In a narrower sense, ecology studies the influence of the habitat on a plant, as well as the various adaptations of plants to the characteristics of this environment. On the earth's surface, plants form certain communities, or phytocenoses, repeating over more or less significant areas (forests, steppes, meadows, savannas, etc.). The study of these communities is carried out by the branch of botany, called in Russia geobotany, or phytocenology (abroad it is often called phytosociology). Depending on the object of study, geobotany distinguishes forestry, meadow science, tundra science, swamp science, etc. In a broader sense, geobotany is associated with the study of ecosystems, or with biogeocenology, which studies the relationships between vegetation, wildlife, soil and underlying rocks . This complex is called biogeocenosis.

The distribution of individual plant species on the surface of the globe is studied plant geography, and the features of the distribution of plant cover on Earth depending on modern conditions and the historical past are botanical geography.

The beneficial properties of wild plants and the possibilities of their cultivation are studied by economic botany (economic botany, botanical resource science). Ethnobotany is closely related to economic botany - the study of the use of plants by various ethnic groups of the world's population. An important section of applied botany is the study of wild relatives of cultivated plants that have valuable properties (for example, immunity to disease, drought resistance, etc.).

Research methods

Botany uses both observation and comparative, historical and experimental methods, including the collection and compilation of collections, observation in nature and in experimental areas, experiment in nature and in specialized laboratories, and mathematical processing of the information received. Along with classical methods of recording certain characteristics of the plants being studied, the entire arsenal of modern chemical, physical and cybernetic research methods is used.

Main stages in the development of botany

As a coherent system of knowledge about plants, botany took shape by the 17th-18th centuries, although much information about plants was known to primitive man, since his life was connected with useful, mainly food, medicinal and poisonous plants. The first books in which plants were described not only in connection with their usefulness were the works of Greek and other natural scientists. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder in his “Natural History” cited all the information about nature known to his contemporaries; he mentioned about 1000 plant species, describing them quite accurately.

Characteristic features of the modern stage of development of botany are the blurring of the lines between its individual branches and their integration. Thus, in plant taxonomy, cytological, anatomical, embryological and biochemical methods are increasingly used to characterize individual taxa. The development of new research methods based on advances in physics and chemistry has made it possible to solve problems that were previously inaccessible. Thus, as a result of the use of an electron microscope, the resolving power of which has increased hundreds of times compared to other optical instruments, many new details of the structure of a plant cell have been revealed, which is successfully used not only in anatomy, but also in the taxonomy of plants.

Botanical nomenclature

In addition to the classification system adopted in biology, botany, like other subsciences of biology, additionally distinguishes species into varieties, subvarieties and forms.

In Russian literature, instead of the term botanical nomenclature, it is customary to use the phrase binary nomenclature, the phrase has become widespread in zoological literature binomial nomenclature .

The formation and replenishment of botanical nomenclature is regulated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature

Literature

• Great Soviet Encyclopedia
• Essays on the history of Russian botany, M., 1947;
• Russian botanists. Biographical and bibliographical dictionary, comp. S. Yu. Lipshits, vol. 1-4, M., 1947-1956;
• Bazilevskaya N. A., Meyer K. I., Stankov S. S., Shcherbakova A. A. Outstanding Russian botanists. M.: State. educational pedagogical publishing house Min. enlightenment RSFSR, 1957
• Development of biology in the USSR, M., 1967, p. 21-158, 695-709;
• Bazilevskaya N. A., Belokon I. P., Shcherbakova A. A., A brief history of botany, M., 1968;
• Möbius M., Geschichte der Botanik, Jena, 1937;
• Reed N. S., A short history of the plant sciences, Waltham (Mass.), 1942;
• Barnhart J. N., Biographical notes upon botanists, v. 1-3, Boston, 1966.

General work

• Botanical Atlas, ed. B.K. Shishkina, M.-L., 1963;
• Zhukovsky P. M., Botany, 4th ed., M., 1964;
• Botany, ed. L. V. Kudryashova, 7th ed., vol. 1, M., 1966;
• McLoan R. S., Ivimey-Cook W. R., Textbook of theoretical botany, v. 1-3, L., 1951-1967;
• Němec V., Pastyrik L., Všeobecná botanika, 3 vyd., Bratislava, 1963;
• Sinnott E.-W., Wilson K. S., Botany: principles and problems, 6 ed., N. Y., 1963;
• Guttenberg N., Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Botanik, 6 Aufl., B., 1963;
• Encyclopédie du monde végétal. Dir. F. Vallardi, t. 1-3, P., 1964;
• Botanika, red. K. Steckiego, Warsz., 1966;
• Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen, 29 Aufl., Jena, 1967;
• H ll J. B., Botany, 4 ed., N. Y., 1967.

Dictionaries and reference books

• Viktorov D.P., Brief dictionary of botanical terms, 2nd ed., M.-L., 1964;
• Dictionary - a guide from botany, ed. I. P. Belokonya, O. L. Lipi, K., 1965;
• Font y Quer P., Diccionario de botanica, Barcelona, ​​1953;
• Usher G., A dictionary of botany, L., 1966;
• Schubert R., Wagner G., Pflanzennamen und botanische Fachwörter, 4. Aufl., Radebeul, 1967;
• Uphof J.C., The dictionary of economic plants, 2 ed., Würzburg, 1968.

Bibliography

• Lebedev D.V., Introduction to the botanical literature of the USSR, M.-L., 1956;
• Levin V.L., Reference manual on bibliography for biologists, M.-L., 1960, ch. 7;
• Fortschritte der Botanik, Bd 1-, B., 1932- (Annual reviews of world botanical literature).

Links

• Portal “All Biology”: Diversity of the organic world

see also

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

• Chemist (disambiguation)
• Prost, Alain

See what “Botanist” is in other dictionaries:

botanist- nerd, agricultural botanist, A student, excellent student Dictionary of Russian synonyms. botanist noun, number of synonyms: 29 agrobotanist (1) ... Synonym dictionary

Botany is the branch of biology that studies plants. This group includes autotrophs, eukaryotes, and other organisms, including multicellular organisms, that produce their own food. The plant kingdom contains a huge variety of species. Plant science is the study of species and the ecology, anatomy, and physiology of plants.

What does botany study?

Botany is a branch of plant science. One of the oldest natural sciences studies the metabolism and function of organisms, the so-called plant physiology, as well as the processes of growth, development and reproduction.

Plant science is responsible for the study of heredity (plant genetics), adaptation to the environment, ecology, and geographic distribution. Among the varieties worth mentioning are geobotany, phytogeography and paleontology (the study of fossils).

History of botany

Botany is a branch of plant science. Botany has been considered as a science since the period of European colonialism, although human interest in plants goes back much further. The area of ​​study included plants and trees on their own land, as well as exotic specimens brought back during numerous travels. And in ancient times, willy-nilly, we had to study certain plants. Since the dawn of time, people have tried to identify medicinal properties plants, their growing season.

Fruits and vegetables were vital to social development of all humanity. When there was no science in the modern sense of the word, humanity explored plants as part of the agricultural revolution.

Such prominent figures of Ancient Greece and Rome as Aristotle, Theophrastus and Dioscorides, among other important sciences, advanced botany to a new level. Theophrastus is even called the father of botany, thanks to whom two seminal works were written that were used for 1500 years and continue to be used to this day.

As with many sciences, significant breakthroughs in the study of botany emerged during the Renaissance and Reformation and the dawn of the Enlightenment. The microscope was invented in the late 16th century, making it possible to study plants like never before, including small parts, such as phytoliths and pollen. Knowledge began to expand not only about the plants themselves, but also about their reproduction, metabolic processes and other aspects that had until then been closed to humanity.

Plant groups

1. The most simple plants All bryophytes are considered, they are small, do not have stems, leaves or roots. Mosses prefer places with high humidity and constantly need water to reproduce.

2. All vascular spore plants, unlike mosses, have vessels that conduct juice, as well as leaves, stems and roots. These plants are also highly dependent on water. Representatives include, for example, ferns and horsetails.

3. All seed plants are more complex plants that have such an important evolutionary advantage as seeds. This is extremely important because it ensures that the embryo is protected and provided with food. There are gymnosperms (pine) and angiosperms (coconut palms).

Plant ecology

Plant ecology is different from botany and is the study of how plants interact with their environment and respond to environmental and climatic changes. The human population is constantly increasing and everything is needed more land, therefore the issue of protection is especially acute natural resources and treating them with care.

Plant ecology recognizes eleven main types of environments in which plant life is possible:

• rainforests,
• temperate forests,
• coniferous forests,
• tropical savannas,
• temperate meadows (plains),
• deserts and arid ecosystems,
• Mediterranean Regions,
• terrestrial and wetlands,
• ecology of freshwater, coastal or marine areas and tundra.

Each phylum has its own ecological profile and balanced plant and animal life, and how they interact is important to understanding their evolution.

Biology: botany section

Botany is the science of the structure, life activity, distribution and origin of plants; it explores, systematizes and classifies all these characteristics, as well as the geographical distribution, evolution and ecology of flora. Botany is a branch of science about the entire diversity of the plant world, which includes many branches. For example, paleobotany studies or fossilized specimens extracted from geological layers. Fossilized algae, bacteria, fungi and lichens are also the subject of study. Understanding the past is fundamental to the present. This science may even shed light on the nature and extent of Ice Age plant species.

Archaeobotany is functional in terms of studying the spread of agriculture, drainage of swamps, and so on. Botany (plant biology) conducts research at all levels, including ecosystems, communities, species, individuals, tissues, cells and molecules (genetics, biochemistry). Biologists study many types of plants, including algae, mosses, ferns, gymnosperms and flowering (seed) plants, including wild and cultivated plants.

Botany is a branch of the science of plants and plant growing. The 20th century is considered the golden age of biology, as thanks to new technologies this science can be explored at a whole new level. Advanced provide latest tools for the study of both plants and other living organisms inhabiting planet Earth.