Study Guide to the Science of Botany

By: Nicole Shalit

The “Study Guide to the Science of Botany” is a free online text book. It is divided into two sections, and is a good book for any online botany class to use.

SECTION 1- Plant Biology

In chapter one you will learn about Botany as a science. This chapter also touches vaguely on microbiology. Section one of chapter one will leave you with one question. Do you think the scientific method is something only scientists would use?

Chapter one section two is about living systems. It goes into detail about kingdom plantae.

In this chapter you will also learn about Plant classification. There are five kingdoms of plants; these are Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. The last section focused on general terminology for the chapter. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:

1-1. Do you think the scientific method is something only a scientist would use?

1-3. When you catch a cold a virus has infected your body.

Why do you think there is reason to question whether the virus is living or not?

After all, if you took some ricinin (a plant poison), you would get very sick,

but no one would suggest the toxin were alive or that the plant had entered your body.

In Chapter two you will learn about cells, protoplasm, and membranes. The first section is dedicated to Plant cell structure. By the end of this section you will know the definitions for: cell wall, protoplasm, cytoplasm, vacuole, ergastic substances, plastids, and chloroplasts. Then it’s onto section two, plant cell specialization. You will learn the terminology collenchymas, sclerenchyma, Epidermal, cork, xylem tracheid, xylem vessel, and meristematic cells. After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following question.

1. Can you think of reasons why macroscopic organisms are multicellular?

Chapter three will teach you all about plant tissue.

Chapter four is about plant organisms. You will learn about tissues, organs, leafs, stems, and other items that have to do with living organisms. After this chapter, the following questions will be answerable.

4-1. At this point the conceptual differences between cell types, tissues, organs, and organisms may be somewhat confusing. Using the leaf as an example, describe this structure in a way that considers the cell types, tissues, and organs for that part of the leaf where photosynthesis is concentrated.

In chapters five and six you will learn about plant reproduction and morphology. The questions you will be able to answer as the first part of the book comes to a close are:

5-1. Do you think the flower structure is in any way responsible for the considerable

success of flowering plants in populating the earth?

What is the difference of capsoid and coccoid?

After chapter six, the book rolls into its second part. In chapter seven you are introduced to plant systematic, and the different types of plants.

Chapter eight focusing on microbiology, chapter nine on algae, ten is dedicated to fungi, eleven to leverworts and mosses, and finally chapter twelve is the fern chapter. At the end of this section, you will be able to answer the following questions.

8.1 How do we know that the different algae are not monophyletic?

8.2 What do the different algae have in common that they are grouped together as algae?

8.3 What are 3 similarities between the green algae and green plants?

8.4 Define endosymbiosis. Did photosynthetic cyanobacteria exist before or after photosynthetic organelles? Why or why not?

11.1 Out of the mosses, the liverworts and the hornworts, do any of these have seeds?

11.2 How are bryophytes similar to the algae? How are they different?

11.3 How is a spore different from a seed? How many sets of chromosomes does a spore have (1N or 2N)?

All and all, this is a perfect book for any online botany class.