One of the basic subdisciplines of plant science and life science in general, taxonomy (also known as systematics) is the study of relationships and organization of plant species. The great diversity within the plant kingdom requires a system by which plant species are named and classified. The modern system is a modification of the system first established in the eighteenth century by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. Each species is placed into a hierarchy of groups that indicate its similarity and dissimilarity to other species. These categories (taxa) are from the most to the least inclusive: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.
The species is the most natural and fundamental unit. Similar species are grouped into a genus, similar genera into a family, families into orders, orders into classes, classes into phyla, and phyla into the kingdoms typically studied in plant science courses: true plants, or Plantae, Fungi, and Protista (which include many unicellular organisms and algae). Each species is given a scientific name which includes the genus name followed by the species name. An example is the scientific name of the dwarf crested iris: Iris cristata.
Morphology
Morphology includes the study of the general structure of plants.
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Anatomy
Anatomy is the study of plant tissues. New plant cells are formed within meristems.
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Cytology
Cytology is the study life at the cellular level; another name for this discipline is cell biology.
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Physiology
Physiology is the study of the various functions performed in and by living organisms.
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Genetics
Genetics, the study of heredity and the mechanisms that control it, is an outgrowth of the studies of Gregor Mendel.
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Molecular Biology
Genetics today is in many ways the concern of another discipline of plant science, molecular biology.
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Ecology
The early Greek scientist Theophrastus, in the third century b.c.e., recognized environmental effects on plants.
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Pale botany
Fossils have long been recognized as remnants of plants and animals that lived and died many millennia ago.
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Economic Botany
People have always relied on plants to provide basic necessities of life: food, shelter, and clothing.
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Related Disciplines
Courses in botany and plant science often address organisms that are not, in the strict sense, plants but that nevertheless are appropriately studied in the same context.
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