The history of botany goes back to 4th-century B.C.E. Manโs curiosity about plants led to many discoveries in Botany which shaped our current lives in many ways. At present, various sub-fields of botany have already emerged. These include plant pathology, plant ecology, paleobotany, and forensic botany.
But despite being established as a discipline, the term โplantโ definition remains vague and still up for more clarification. Botanists often describe plants more inclusively with multicellular, eukaryotic organisms that do not have sensory organs and have, when complete, root, stem, and leaves.
History of Botany โ A Timeline
Duringย theย Pre-17th Century
Quote: โMedicine sometimes grants health, sometimes destroys it, showing which plants are helpful, which harm.โ
During the 17th Century
Early 17th century: For a brief period, the search for knowledge in the field of Botany temporarily became stagnant. However, the revival of learning during the Europeanย Renaissanceย renewed interest in plants.
The number of scientific publications increased.
1665: ย ย Robert Hooke invented the microscope. Because of this, Robert Hooke had the chance to look closely at what a cell looks like. His description of these cells was published in Micrographia. However, the cells seen by Hooke showed no signs of the nucleus and other organelles found in most living cellsย (Rhoads 2007).
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1686: ย ย John Ray published his book, Historia Plantarum. This became an important step toward modern taxonomyย (Arber 2010).
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During the 18th Century
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1760s:ย ย Botany became even more widespread among educated women who painted plants, attended classes on plant classification, and collected herbarium specimens. ย However, their study focused on the healing properties of plants rather than plant reproduction. Women began publishing on botanical topics, and childrenโs books on botany appearedย (Mason 2016).
The prize resulting from the period of exploration was accumulated in gardens and herbaria. And the task of systematically cataloging them was left to the taxonomists.
During the 19th Century
Early part of the nineteenth century: Progress in the study of plant fossils was made.
1818:ย ย ย Chlorophyll was discovered.
1840:ย ย ย ย Advances were made in the study of plant diseases because of theย potatoย blight that killed potato crops in Ireland. This led to the further study of plant diseases (Richman 2016).
1847: ย ย The process of photosynthesis was first elucidated by Mayer. However, the exact and detailed mechanism remained a mystery until 1862.
1859:ย ย ย Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution and adaptation, or more commonly referred to as โsurvival of the fittestโย (kenyon.edu 2016).
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace collaborated. Darwin soon published his renowned and highly recognized book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Around the same time, Gregor Mendel experimented with the inheritance among pea plants.
Gregor Mendel became the โFather of Geneticsโ.
1862: ย ย The exact mechanism of photosynthesis was discovered when it was observed that starch was formed in green cells only in the presence of light.
1865:ย ย ย The results of Mendelโs experiments in 1865 showed that both parents should pass distinct physical factors which code information to their offspring at conception. The offspring then inherits one unit for each trait from each of his parents (Richman 2016)
Twentieth Century up to the Present
Early 20th Century:ย The process of nitrogen fixation, nitrification, and ammonification was discovered.
1903: ย ย The two types of chlorophyllโa and b were discovered. Learn more here.
1936:ย ย Through his experiment, Alexander Oparin demonstrated the mechanism of the synthesis of organic matter from inorganic molecules. ย Refer to a controversial observation of his findings at later years.
1940s: ย ย Ecology became a separate discipline. ย Technology has helped specialists in botany to see and understand the three-dimensional nature of cells andย the genetic engineeringย of plants. This greatly improved crops and products (Arber 2010).
Until the present, the study of plants continues as botanists try to understand plantsโ structure, behavior, and cellular activities. This endeavor is to develop better crops, find new medicines, and explore ways of maintaining an ecological balance onย Earthย to sustain both plant andย animalย life (Mason 2016).
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References
- Arber, Agnes. โTHE EARLY HISTORY OF BOTANY.โ Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution, 2010: 1-2.
- Farabee, M. Development of the Evolutionary Theory. 2001. https://www2.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/BioBookEVOLI.htmlย (accessed July 22, 2016).
- JRank Articles. e: Botany โ History of botany โ Plants, Plant, Study, and Century. 2016. http://science.jrank.org/pages/996/Botany.html (accessed July 24, 2016).
- kenyon.edu. History of Genetics. 2016. http://biology.kenyon.edu/courses/biol114/Chap01/history_genetics.html (accessed July 22, 2016).
- Kumar, Punam. Introduction to botany. 2016. http://www.peoi.org/Courses/Coursesen/bot/frame1.html (accessed July 23, 2016).
- Mason, M.G. Introduction to Botany. 2016. http://www.environmentalscience.org/botany (accessed July 23, 2016).
- Rhoads, Dan. History of Cell Biology. 2007. http://bitesizebio.com/166/history-of-cell-biology/ (accessed July 22, 2016).
- Richman, Vita. History of botany. 2016. http://science.jrank.org/pages/996/Botany.html (accessed July 23, 2016).
- ย ROOK A (ed.). 1964. The Origins and Growth of Biology. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd. 403 p.
[โฆ] field of botany grew by leaps and bounds during this time. John Hooke invented the microscope, and Anton von [โฆ]