An Introduction to Botany:

Plants and Life:

For every form of life, plants make basic food staples, and this is simply one reason why plants are significant. They are main source of oxygen and food on earth as no animal is able to supply components essential without plants. Fish we eat consume algae and cattle we eat as beef consume grass, so even if one is not fan of salads, food source depends on plants.

There are several usages of plants. Green plants and algae produce oxygen and sugars which maintain life on earth. Plants supply the food and several of drinks. For instance, approx 95% of food comes from only 20 species of plants. Tea and coffee, world's two most popular beverages are prepared from plants. Extracts from plants and plant like organisms are utilized to prepare dyes, waxes, spices, paints and drugs like cocaine, aspirin quinine and antibiotics.

What is a Plant?

Mostly think that we have a fairly good idea of what a plant is - quiet green organism that we eat, use for decoration, cut down when we please and plant as shades. Our notion is correct if it fits into the above, but that is not all that a plant is. It is difficult to come up with a complete definition for the word plant. The nature of plants is so varied that it will be difficult to hold onto a trait and say that it is common to all plants. For example, not all plants are green. There are plants that consume animals. Some plants do not look like or act as plants and yet they are plants. Plants have also being considered an uninteresting.

Few Plants and their features:

1. Plants are multicellular organisms composed of eucaryotic cells. Such cells also happen in other organisms apart from bacteria and cyanobacteria. Eucaryotic cells contain membrane-bound organelles and the nucleus.

2. Plants are usually autotrophic, oxygen-evolving photosynthesizers. They make their own food (source of energy and carbon skeletons) by photosynthesis in which process oxygen is given off. This is most significant feature which explains plant in relation to crop farming and responsible for life on Earth. Starch is main storage product of photosynthesis and their food reserve.

3. On the contrary to other organisms, plants are non-motile. Though, plants are not accurately motionless. They also show some kind of limited movement like unidirectional movement of plant parts in respond to light, or phototropism, and folding of leaves of Mimosa in respond to touch.

4. Life cycle of plants comprises of distinct alternation of generations. This signifies that plants have both haploid gametophyte that produces gametes and diploid sporophyte. Depending on species, generations can happen simultaneously or successively. Except in bryophytes, dominant generation is sporophyte.

5. Along with sporophyte, plants have evolved embryo, the immature diploid sporophyte which is attached to or enclosed by gametophyte (Simpson 2010). Thus term Embryophyta or embryophytes, also called land plants as differentiated from former green plants that include green algae.

6. Giant sequoia (sequoidendron gigantum) and its taller but slimmer relative, coastal red word (sequoia sempervirens) are world's tallest plants. The twenty-year old tree is frequently more than 15 meters high.

7. Cherry tree has been utilized for several purposes; cherry black utilized to make tea to relieve pains of childbirth and to cure colds, coughs and dysentery. Plants are utilized to produce tons and tons of newsprints read.

8) People have utilized fibers for more than ten thousand years. They are utilized to create cigarette paper, rope, brushes, textile, brooms, linen and money.

Botanists View of Life:

Botanists, other scientists and non-scientists frequently share the almost insatiable curiously about life, and its varied but associated forms. Scientists, though, watch life in more exotic places, for e.g. while perched in the tree top of typical rain forest or in green house enclosed by plants bred particularly for experiments. Such deep observation has created several questions about plants. Botanists have replied these and other queries by using experiment based on process known as scientific method.

The Scientific Method:

This is systematic mode to explain universe based on comparing, observing, predicting, reasoning, testing, concluding and interpreting. It starts with things which we are all familiar with observation and curiosity. These observations can occur anywhere, in research laboratory or in garden. This type of causal question is at heart of scientific method. Science is essentially about finding answers to these questions. To answer these questions, botanists utilize past experiences, thoughts and observations to suggest hypotheses which may make predictions. To find out whether predictions are correct, botanists do experiments. If experimental results match forecast hypothesis is discarded. In this manner, few hypotheses are received and few are not our understanding improves by eliminating some of the explanations. Posing hypotheses is perhaps the most creative step in scientific method. It needs the kind of reasoning known as abduction that is the process of creating description for observations. Abduction engages sensing ways that novel circumstances is someway similar (analogous) to other known circumstances, and using the similarity to create hypothesis about new circumstances.

The cycle of questioning and answering which defines scientific method is second nature to practicing scientist; though its use is not limited to scientists. We all plan, compare, guess, observe, and perform experiments, and interpret and use results of experimental. For instance ancestors utilized trial-and-error to find out which plants were edible. Parents do the similar experiment when they introduce food. They also experiment, by tasting food in question, to check safety or taste.

Joining Themes of Botany:

Plant studies have exposed that plants share many significant characteristics. The understanding of such themes will allow you understand plants better. Such themes are given below:

1) Plants comprise of organized parts: Plants utilize same building blocks to make all parts. Difference we see in organs like leaves and roots result mainly from different arrangements of similar tissue rather than occurrence of unique tissues.

2) Plants exchange energy with the surroundings: Plants take in energy from the environment and in turn have the effect on the surroundings as they use that energy for the activities. This conversion of energy from one form to another happens through set of chemical reactions together known as metabolism.

3) Plants reply and adapt to the environment: These adaptations are inherited features which assist to make sure survival. These replies include skill of plants to detect and react to stimuli like gravity; to collect nutrients, to attract animals in assisting pollinate, protect and disperse plant; to convert light energy to chemical energy. All of the adaptations are significant as they increase the plant's probability of survival and reproduction.

4) Plants reproduce: Their reproduction can be as easy as splitting the cell, or as complex as going through procedure of flower production, mobilizing energy reserves or tempting insects, birds and other Helpers. Though many plants can reproduce sexually and asexually, greatest variation result from sexual Reproduction, in which pieces of DNA known as genes move from one generation to next. Genes combined with influence of environment produces features of plants.

Plants share parts of the common ancestry:

This ancestry is described as one long argument for diversity of life, utilized evidence, logic and analogy to describe central role of variation in evolution of life.

Botany explains the themes in many contexts comprising relation of structure and function, evolution and diversity of plant, lore, significance and uses of plants. Biotechnology is the way of utilizing organisms to create commercial products. Skill to directly manipulate plants genome started in 1983 when botanists transferred the gene from bacterium into plant. Today biotechnology and molecular biology are transforming biology and biology - based industries. Some uses of biotechnology are provided below.

1. To prepare vitamins and drugs. For instance, plants are transformed in industries which make drugs and oils. The promising new vaccine for Hepatitis B is prepared with baker's years, and plants are now utilized to prepare serum albumen, that when eaten by pets like tomato hornworm induces paralysis and death. This protein has no consequence on other organisms.

2. To make plants resistant to herbicides. Hereditarily engineered plants can now endure, glyphosate, active ingredient in herbicide utilized to manage weed in farms.

3. To prepare food and beverages like cheese, yogurt, bread and beer. For e.g., botanists at Quarter Oats are utilizing biotechnology to increase protein content of the oats; those at Kraft are utilizing similar technologies to reduce amount of saturated fat in soybean oil utilized in the products.

4. Other uses of biotechnology comprise making better - recycling wastes, tasting food, preventing tooth decay, biodegradable plastics, cleaning environment, and making antibiotics, and fragrances.

Gains of studying plant biology:

The study of botany will illustrate you process of science and doing of scientists. It will assists you understand living organisms. Such appreciation is first step towards respecting and saving life. Botany will assist you understand what botanists know, what they do not know and what they perform.

Tutorsglobe: A way to secure high grade in your curriculum (Online Tutoring)

Expand your confidence, grow study skills and improve your grades.

Since 2009, Tutorsglobe has proactively helped millions of students to get better grades in school, college or university and score well in competitive tests with live, one-on-one online tutoring.

Using an advanced developed tutoring system providing little or no wait time, the students are connected on-demand with a tutor at www.tutorsglobe.com. Students work one-on-one, in real-time with a tutor, communicating and studying using a virtual whiteboard technology.  Scientific and mathematical notation, symbols, geometric figures, graphing and freehand drawing can be rendered quickly and easily in the advanced whiteboard.

Free to know our price and packages for online biology tutoring. Chat with us or submit request at [email protected]