Botany

Botany is the study of plants. It is a science. It is a branch of biology. 

It is also called plant biology, and sometimes phytology. Scientists who study botany are called botanists. They study how plants work.

 Branches of botany 
Agronomy—Applying plant science to crop production
Bryology—Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts
Forestry—Forest management and related studies
Horticulture—Cultivated plants
Micropaleontology—Pollen and spores
Mycology—Fungi
Paleobotany—Fossil plants
Phycology—Algae
Phytochemistry—Plant chemical processes
Phytopathology—Plant diseases
Defence against herbivory
Plant anatomy—Cell and tissue structure
Plant ecology—Role of plants in the environment
Plant genetics—Genetic inheritance in plants
Plant morphology—Structure and life cycles
Plant physiology—Life functions of plants
Plant systematics—Classification and naming of plants (listed by plant type)

 Recent trends 
University departments of botany are often now merged into a wider group of specialities, including cell biology, genetics, ecology, cytology, palaeontology and other topics. This gives students and research workers access to a wider education and a wider range of research techniques.

 Notable botanists in date order 
 Theophrastus ~371 BC Eresos~287 BC (aged 83 or 84) Athens. Hellenistic philosopher, wrote books, systematized botanical descriptions.
Al-Dinawari (828–896), Kurdish botanist, historian, geographer, astronomer, mathematician, and founder of Arabic botany.
 Ibn al-Baitar (d. 1248), Andalusian-Arab scientist, author of one of the largest botanical encyclopedias.
John Ray (1627–1705) was an English naturalist, the father of English natural history.
Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of Binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.
 Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) was a French naturalist, superintendent of the Jardin du Roi ('King's Garden'). Buffon published thirty-five volumes of his Histoire naturelle during his lifetime, and nine more volumes were published after his death.
Imre Festetics (1764–1847) discovered genetics (in part) and was completely forgotten until a recent rediscovery.
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) wrote eight important books on botany after he published the Origin of Species.
Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), English botanist and explorer. Second winner of Darwin Medal.
Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), Augustinian priest and scientist. Often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants.
Eduard Strasburger (1844–1912) was a Polish-German professor who was one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century.
Luther Burbank (1849–1926), American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science.
Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943) was a Russian botanist and geneticist. He  showed how and where crop plants evolved. He studied and improved wheat, corn, and other cereal crops.
G. Ledyard Stebbins (1906–2000) was an American botanist and geneticist. He was one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century.
Simpson, Michael G. (2011). Plant systematics. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-08-051404-8.