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I Am a Botanist (And No, I Don’t Grow Marijuana)

When I tell people that I make my living in botany, they often guess at what that means. Some have no sense for the word. Others imagine me on slow strolls through meadows, sniffing wildflowers and communing with songbirds.

I also often get asked if being a botanist means that I grow marijuana.

I have been asked this by folks of all ages and statuses, from “Joe Publics” on adjacent barstools to potential donors being courted at fundraising events. Once, on an airplane, I was drawn into a long conversation with a military veteran about the efficiency of hydroponics. Another time I was invited to jump in on a land deal so that we (my potential business partner and I) could…

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 Badass Babes of Botany

Badass Babes of Botany https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/badass-babes-botany It’s the turn of the 19th century and botany is the only socially acceptable science for women to pursue. After all, both women and plants are “delicate,” so naturally botany is “fashionable.” At least, that was society’s thinking at the time.

 What Do Botanists Do?

When I say botanist, you might think of a white-bearded man scampering around the woods collecting flowers. Maybe you think of a slightly nutty woman a la Professor Sprout in Harry Potter. Or perhaps you just shrug at me. What is a botanist and what do botanists do? The short answer is that botanists are scientists who study plants. They generally have a degree in biology, botany, or a related field from a university if they’re involved in research. That said, some plant specialists may not be classically trained in the sciences if their focus is more on traditional medicine or cultivation.

 World’s botanists release ten calls for action for a sustainable future

More than 3,000 botanists from 95 countries gathered at the XX International Botanical Congress in Madrid, held between 21-27th of July 2024, and issued ten calls for action, putting plants at the center of society’s path toward a sustainable future. They urge stronger connections between plants and people for future planetary health and resilience. After a week of stimulating talks covering topics across the plant sciences – from ecology to evolution, plant form and function to conservation – the scientists came together in a final plenary session to send a call to society.

Articles of Interest

Big Pharma's Real Roots

There was a great interest in the world and that extended to the plant world, so these universities built medical faculties, primarily of botanists. And in order to study the medicine of their era in a scientific way they began these collections.

Botanist

A botanist is a scientist who specializes in plant biology, and is an expert on varieties of vegetation including, algae, grass, cacti, flowers, moss, trees, shrubs and edibles, including herbs, fruits and vegetables. Unlike landscapers and gardeners who arrange, grow and care for plants, botanists research them.

Carl Linnaeus – Botanist and physician

Carl Linnaeus, the famous botanist and father of modern plant nomenclature, was also a physician. Born in 1707 in a rural village in Southern Sweden, he had developed at an early age an interest in flowers and plants. His father was a priest and would have liked his son to also join the church. But Linnaeus had little interest in theology and managed to persuade his parents that he was “too dumb to become a priest.” They agreed that he could study medicine, where his botanical interests would be useful. In his time most medicines came from plants.

Could Ancient Remedies Hold the Answer to the Looming Antibiotics Crisis?

One researcher thinks the drugs of the future might come from the past: botanical treatments long overlooked by Western medicine.

Country Doctors Were the Old-Time Botanists and Some Physicians Still Embrace Gardening

But maybe the best hobby for the busy physician is the tranquility of gardening. You are not going to go into a fatal nose spin in your small plane. No one is going to steal your coin collection or accidentally blind you when a black powder musket misfires. In gardening your only worry might be weather, but you can create shade and always water your plants. Serendipity!

Ellen Hutchins: Ireland’s First Female Botanist

Despite her death at such a young age, Hutchins managed to become quite accomplished in the field of Irish cryptogamic botany, collecting many rare specimens and discovering new species. Many of the botanists who had admired her work named new species after her.

Exploring the Wild World of Botany

Astrophysicists get to study the whole wide universe. Evolutionary biologists get to study the very origins of life. Botanists, they get…plants. It’s a humble field. In Harry Potter terms, it’s like skipping the fun Hogwarts classes—Dark Arts, Charms, Care of Magical Animals—in favor of Herbology.

From botany to bedside: a review of the health benefits of Lycium barbarum as a functional food

The genus Lycium, comprising 97 species globally, of which 31 species purposed in food and medicine applications, belongs to the Solanaceae family, which also includes well-known crops like potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants

Growing Organs on Apples

The future of regenerative medicine may be plants.

The Advantages of Being a Botanist

Botanists specialize in the scientific study of plant life. The importance of botany in daily life is seen in industries as diverse as agriculture, horticulture, genetic engineering and health care.

Wells Fargo Encourages Budding Actors To Become Botanists And Then Apologizes

The message here is, of course, that the future is science. That becoming a ballerina or an actor is a dreamscape fairytale that has no place in a real world of cold hard cash and sciencey-sounding things like botany.

What can I do with a major in Botany?

As the population of people on earth continues to explode, the need to produce more productive crops and more nutritious foods will depend on the talents of botanists. Because all people use resources and produce wastes, there will also be increasing pressures on the environment with a need for botanists to help solve problems with air, water, and soil pollution and to preserve the ecosystems around the globe. The world is constantly changing, but the need for future botanists remains strong.

What Does a Botanist Do?

If you love all things green and growing and you’re fascinated by the science of plants and the world’s ecosystem, a career in botany may be for you. Botanists delve into how our planet’s ecosystem works the way it does – studying everything from small organisms and soil health to large trees that are centuries old. As a botanist, you can help to restore endangered species, conserve protected areas and plant species, and shape the way we as humans interact sustainably and get food from the crops we eat.

Why Plants Are (Usually) Better Than Drugs

I have always been fascinated by the difference between plants and the drugs that are isolated from them. This goes back to my student days at Harvard in the 1960s, where I received my undergraduate degree in botany, and then went on to medical school. It’s rare — too rare, I have to say — for botanists to become doctors. The experience gave me a unique perspective on health and medicine.

Resources

A Wandering Botanist

Tales of a lover of plants, history and travel.

Adventures in Fern Biology

I research reticulate evolutionary processes, including hybridization and polyploidy, and their effects on plant systematics, genomics, and physiological ecology. I'm particularly interested in the seed-free vascular plants, ferns and lycophytes.

Awkward Botany

My name is Daniel, and I am a bona fide plant nerd. I grow plants, study plants, work with plants, and write about plants. This blog will document my plant obsession. It is for the equally plant obsessed, as well as for the plant interested and the plant curious.

Botany Blog

Plants of the Northeastern U.S.

Botany Professor

Essays, botanical travelogues, and other resources provided for students, instructors and anyone else seeking a deeper understanding of the nature of plants.

Brilliant Botany

Brilliant Botany began as a blog in November of 2011. It focused on photographs, plant facts, and plant ID. It has since expanded to include a website, social media presence and, as of 2013, a YouTube series. Brilliant Botany is intended as a resource for anyone interested in plants, and a means for building community

Get Your Botany On!

Multiple bloggers.

Global Plant Council

Feeding the world’s rapidly growing human population is one of the most urgent global challenges of our time. By 2050 it is predicted there will be over 9 billion people on the planet. To meet the needs of a growing population we not only need to produce more food, but more accessible, reliable, and nutritious food. We need our crops to thrive in more challenging climates, and be resilient to new pests and diseases

Go Botany

Discover thousands of New England plants.

Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Human Health

Organised by body system & ailment, this text focuses on research discoveries & their development as therapies for use in complementary-alternative & conventional medicine. The book includes background physiology & coverage of green plants, fungi, & microorganisms.

Medicine Hunter

The three-fold purpose of Medicine Hunter Inc. is to promote natural, plant-based medicines, to protect the natural environment, and to support indigenous cultures.

Moss Plants and More

Commentary on all things Bryological.

Pharmaceutical Botanist Overview

A pharmaceutical botanist works in the pharmaceutical industry to study plant-based medicines and their effects on the human body. They work to develop novel treatments and therapies from plant sources, and also use their knowledge to analyze the safety and thus efficacy of existing treatments. They typically have a comprehensive knowledge of both recent and traditional botanical medicines and their uses, as well as an understanding of current pharmaceutical trends, pharmacological principles and research methods pertaining to the use of plant-based medicines

Pl@ntNet

Pl@ntNet is a tool to help to identify plants with pictures. It is organize in different databases. Please choose the one corresponding to your location.

Plant Medicine Track

The track includes three dimensions: (1) the way social scientists and historians treat the history of psychiatry and healing, especially as it intersects with plant medicines; (2) a reflection about the substances themselves, and their effects on bodies; and (3) traditional healing, as it connects back to our understanding of drugs and of psychiatry - Bia Labate

Plants Are Cool Too

"Plants Are Cool, Too!" is the web series acknowledging that animals are pretty interesting - but plants are cool, too!

ScienceDaily

Your source for the latest research news.

Southern California Botanists

The Southern California Botanists is a non-profit professional society devoted to the study, preservation, and conservation of the native plants and plant communities of Southern California.

The Botanical Hiker

Adventures in hiking, wild foods, herbal medicine, and gratitude.

The Botanist in the Kitchen

Where botany meets the cutting board.

The Phytophactor

A plant pundit comments on plants, the foibles and fun of academic life, and other things of interest.

The Plant Press

The Plant Press is the quarterly newsletter from the Department of Botany and the U.S. National Herbarium. The purpose of The Plant Press is to provide information about the activities of the Department. Included are articles about staff research and travel, visitors, new publications, and plant conservation highlights.

Uncommon Ground

Academics, biodiversity, genetics, & evolution.

UW Botany

The Department of Botany promotes modern plant biology by engaging in forward-looking teaching and research, with strengths in evolution, systematics and ecology.