Botany 301 is an extension from introductions to plant science provided by introductory biology and botany classes. As is the case with most advanced courses, the focus is narrowed to provide a more detailed set of information. In this case, we are only concerned with single element of the plant kingdom , the flowering plants or angiosperms, and a single scientific view of this group, that of plant taxonomy or systematics.
Angiosperms dominate the world's biota.
Thus, the educational foundation for those working at a professional level in the life sciences must include a technical familiarity with the angiosperms. The flowering plants are a large, complex group of organisms. Familiarity with any complex array is signaled by an ability to identify, recognize, and generally discern its elements via knowledge of the foundation 'structure' of the group. Someone with a passing knowledge of automobiles can, for instance, distinguish between a 'sports car' and a 'utility vehicle'. It should be noted that the structure of modern flowering plant classification systems is based phylogenetic patterns, i.e., taxa represent lineages that share a common evolutionary history.