r/botany

What would you do for a botany themed birthday party for an adult? A native plant loving adult?

I’ve recently been researching hydroponics and constructed wetlands and found a lot of it deriving from the principles of hydrobotany which I find fascinating. Wondering why it’s not as big of a field as other botanic disciplines or if it’s called something else? Thanks!

See also: The study as it was published in Current Biology

Hi! I'm going to college for an undergraduate degree in botany soon, and I've wanted to get better at studying the natural flora in my area. I am in mid-north California, and got a second hand Jepson manual as my dichotomous key, but I feel ridiculous carrying that huge book around along with other companion books, just to identify and learn about the handful of plants I see. Do botanists just constantly carry around a ton of books? Or are there more condensed ways of having this information with me? I would use online resources more, but many of the places I go to look at plants have no cell service and I try to keep my battery for emergencies and navigation to get home. My usual setup has been the Jepson manual and my two national auburn society books for visuals. Also if anyone has other recommendations for dichotomous keys or field guides for California I would be very grateful! I'm just trying to expand my knowledge as much as possible before college so that I come in prepared. Thank you! (also I couldn't find a "questions" flare, hope that this is okay)

Hi everyone, I’m an undergrad student in Biology, for long I have considered going into medical research, but I am starting to realize that I’d be way happier working with plants and the environment for various reasons. I am thinking of studying phytoremediation and/or biomaterials, mostly with fungi and algae, but also plants, is it realistic? Is there actual funding for this kind of research in Europe? I’ve also been diving for years and if I can I would love to dive for research as well!

I’ve gotten pretty good at using a dichotomous key to identify plants in my area down to the genus, but from there I wonder, how do botanists identify specific species? It seems like such a specific classification sometimes that I don’t know how to find the small, minuscule differences that you need to identify one single species. Moreover, where do you even find the particular morphological information on each species to have a confident guess on what it is? For example, I found this beautiful plant on a hike yesterday that I’m 100% confident is of the genus castilleja (paintbrush), but from there, I don’t know if it’s castilleja miniata, castilleja integra, or maybe something else entirely. There’s just not enough info on each of those species’ wikipedia pages to know all the factors needed to make an accurate identification. Thank you!