Botany Botany research includes systematic, taxonomic, phytogeographic, floristic work, and environmental change studies on plants and lichens.
Diatoms are one-celled protists, which by definition are neither plants nor animals.
Like plants, diatoms contain chlorophyll and produce their own energy, so they can be studied under the field of botany. Diatoms are encased in a silica shell that is like a shoebox with a bottom and a slightly larger top. Silica is the hard mineral substance silicon dioxide, and is widely used in the manufacture of glass. In this form of art, diatoms are arranged in an attractive pattern by a patient microscopist. The diatom shell becomes free from the eyelash when placed into the stickier mounting material on the microscope slide.