Branches of botany

subdiscipline of botany

thumbnail|300px| Pine [[pollen under the microscope]] thumb|300px| A late Silurian [[sporangium bearing trilete spores. Such spores provide the earliest evidence of life on land. Green: A spore tetrad. Blue: A spore bearing a trilete mark – the Y-shaped scar. The spores are about 30–35 μm across.]]

Bryology (from Greek , a moss, a liverwort) is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts). Bryologists are botanists who have an active interest in observing, recording, classifying or researching bryophytes. The field is often studied along with lichenology due to the similar appearance and ecological niche of the two organisms, even though bryophytes and lichens are not classified in the same kingdom.

study of the internal structure of plants

thumb|right|A fossil Betula leopoldae ([[birch) leaf from the Early Eocene of Washington state, approximately 49 million years ago]]

subdiscipline of botany

thumb|Illustration of the 'Willermoz' pear by Alexandre Bivort from Album de Pomologie (1848–1852) Pomology (from Latin , "fruit", + , "study") is a branch of botany that studies fruits and their cultivation. Someone who researches and practices the science of pomology is called a pomologist.

Phytosociology, also known as phytocoenology or simply plant sociology, is the study of groups of species of plant that are usually found together. Phytosociology aims to empirically describe the vegetative environment of a given territory. A specific community of plants is considered a social unit, the product of definite conditions, present and past, and can exist only when such conditions are met. In phyto-sociology, such a unit is known as a phytocoenosis (or phytocoenose). A phytocoenosis is more commonly known as a plant community, and consists of the sum of all plants in a given area. I

Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants. Phytochemists strive to describe the structures of the large number of secondary metabolites found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human and plant biology, and the biosynthesis of these compounds. Plants synthesize phytochemicals for many reasons, including to protect themselves against insect attacks and plant diseases. The compounds found in plants are of many kinds, but most can be grouped into four major biosynthetic classes: alkaloids, phenylpropanoids, polyketides, and terpenoids.

thumb|280px|Marine microfossils: (diatom, [[ostracod, radiolarian, sponge spicule, radiolarian, planktonic foraminiferan (two), coccolith)]]

thumb|right|alt=An elderly woman sitting at a desk with dried grass specimens, looking at the camera|Mary Agnes Chase studying grass specimens, around 1960

Wikimedia glossary list article

Carpology is a discipline of botany devoted to the study of seeds and fruits. The German inventor Joseph Gaertner, an 18th-century doctor and botanist, dedicated his life to the study of natural history. He considered its inventor. When the discipline is applied to archaeological remains, it is known as paleocarpology, which in turn is located within paleobotanical science.

proposed cognition of plants

thumb|A zucchini being grown on the International Space StationAstrobotany is an applied sub-discipline of botany that is the study of plants in space environments. It is a branch of astrobiology and botany.

thumb|Flotation machine in use at Hallan Çemi, southeast Turkey, c. 1990. Note the two sieves catching charred seeds and charcoal, and the bags of archaeological sediment waiting for flotation.Paleoethnobotany (also spelled palaeoethnobotany), or archaeobotany, is the study of past human-plant interactions through the recovery and analysis of ancient plant remains. Both terms are synonymous, though paleoethnobotany (from the Greek words palaios [παλαιός] meaning ancient, ethnos [έθνος] meaning race or ethnicity, and votano [βότανο] meaning plants) is generally used in North America and acknowl