Botany is, by definition, the study of plants.
However, modern botany does not merely consist of collecting and describing flowers. It is an active area of research and teaching, involving aspects as diverse as the promotion of growth in crop plants, using the most-modem techniques of genetic engineering, through to the effects of pollution on marine plants, and including studies of our unique and fascinating native flora. The Department reflects the importance, of plants to everyone from their use in agriculture, forestry, and urban development, to the growing interest in our native flora and its environment. The environmental impacts of mining, agriculture, forest exploitation and pollution, both in the marine and terrestrial environments, are all topics relevant to the study of Botany. TEE Chemistry and TEE Biology provide useful background information, but are not essential.