"Botany for the New Millennium—The Practical"
Christine Mlot, for the Botanical Society of America (1992)

URL: http://www.botany.org/bsa/millen/mil-chp2.html

SITE SUMMARY: This document, emphasizing the practical aspects of plants, for food, fuel, fiber for clothing, and pharmaceuticals, is chapter two in Botany for the New Millennium: A Report (1992), edited by Karl Niklas, Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Biology, Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University. This chapter investigates various facets of one of the main aspects of botany that the Botanical Society of America officials and members think are essential to make known at the beginning of the new millennium. (This document can also be found by clicking the report title at the Web site's index page http://www.botany.org/bsa/millen/index.html.)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

1. Read the first and last two paragraphs of chapter two of Botany for the New Millennium: A Report. What crisis exists at the dawn of the new millennium? What is the cause? Why is botanical knowledge crucial at this time? What is true about plants and people through history, and why will it probably be the same in the future?
2. Identify ten practical uses of plants as indicated in chapter two of the Report. Describe five, and give examples.
3. What is the effect of restoration of plants in an ecosystem? Why is it important? (See chapter two of the Report, and Ecosystem Structure and Function in the Report's chapter one which can be found via the index page cited in the Site Summary above.)
4. See the Report's Introduction, found via the index page as cited in the Site Summary above. Define botany. Explain why it is important. Name a famous botanist noted here, and describe this botanist's major botanical work and its practical aspect(s).
5. Investigate at the Web sites for the Environmental Horticulture Club at the University of California in Davis, "What Is Environmental Horticulture?" at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, plus the EthnoBotanical Resource Directory at the University of Florida, the Society for Economic Botany, and Plants for a Future. (Their urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.) Explain and give examples of other practical aspects of botany, especially with relation to the new millennium. Describe how one aspect would affect you. (Hints: plants and a particular nation or environment.)

RELATED INTERNET SITE(S)

Plants for a Future

http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/index.html

This is an award-winning site by a British-based resource and information center for rare and unusual plants, particularly those with edible, medicinal, and other uses. It features links to leaflets on plants with particular uses, information on a book with suggestions involving plants and the future, a link to a plant database, and a link to its sister database in the United States.

Society for Economic Botany

http://www.econbot.org/home.html

On the main page, see links to a Brochure, and current issues of the Society's Economic Botany journal and Plants and People newsletter, all accessible in PDF format. In a pull-down menu, note links to educational resources, ethics resources, student network, and related links.

EthnoBotanical Resource Directory

http://www.cieer.org/directory.html

The Centre for International EthnoMedicinal Research provides here more than one hundred fifty links. Scroll to links under sections including "What is Ethnobotany?" articles, databases, Web directory, research projects, educational opportunities, bibliographies, publications such as Plants and People Online Initiative/Ethnobotany Sourcebook sponsored by the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, UNESCO, and the World Wildlife Fund, plus professional societies, universities and institutions. See also links in the Cool Sites section, including to "Sacred Earth: An Educational Forum on Ethnobotany and Ecotourism," and links in the miscellaneous sites section, including Legendary Ethnobotanical Resources (with its own "What is Ethnobotany?" page).

What Is Environmental Horticulture?

http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu (click link)

This definition is provided by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Environmental Horticulture Club at the University of California in Davis

http://envhort.ucdavis.edu/ehclub/index.htm

Links go to a Fun Horticulture Links page (which leads to sites such as EnviroPlants), and the UCD Environmental Horticulture Homepage (which leads to Growing Points publications, and more links).