Geoffrey Watkins

Botany: Growth and Developments of Plants Geoffrey Watkins

Botany is the branch of biology that studies plant life. Various agricultural products as well as medicinal and recreational drugs are directly derived from plants. Alcoholic beverages and stimulants such as caffeine, tea, chocolate and nicotine are also derived from plants. Besides such applications, plants are utilized for the production of dyes and pigments, sugar, cotton, rope, oil, wax, rubber, etc. The technological tools of optical microscopy, electron microscopy, live cell imaging, molecular genetic analysis are significant to the development of botany. Due to the rise of molecular scale biological approaches of genomics, metabolomics and proteomics, various aspects of plant genome, physiology, morphology and behavior of plants are now explored in a detailed manner. This book brings forth some of the most innovative concepts and elucidates the unexplored aspects of botany. It strives to provide a fair idea about this discipline and to help develop a better understanding of the latest advances within this field. It is an essential guide for both academicians and those who wish to pursue this discipline further.