-
Asked by anon-349103 to Liz on 9 Mar 2023.
-
Liz Barron-Majerik answered on 9 Mar 2023:
🙂
I am a bit torn. I like old fashioned botany which was mostly about finding rare plants and drawing them, or crossing plants to try and make even more beautiful and useful plants, but nowadays Plant Science is probably a better description as we do so much more than the old term suggests.
-
Comments
Sam commented on :
I think it’s a useful distinction. I wouldn’t describe myself as a botanist, as people would expect me to be able to identify many different species of plant, and to give them advice on their garden, but these are really not things I am an expert in. I have much more knowledge on how plants work at a cellular and molecular level, so i think plant scientist is a much more useful way to describe me. Botany is still very much alive and well and I have many colleagues who are definitely botanists as well as plant scientists.
Phil commented on :
When I was a student, my department changed its name from the Botany School to the Department of Plant Sciences. I think it makes it much easier to understand. I love the fact that English has so many different words to describe things but also can see that it can be very confusing and can put people off. In my mind, ‘Botany’ is quite old-fashioned, it suggests identifying plants and looking at pressed flowers, but ‘Plant Sciences’ is more modern, and is about learning how plants work and why that’s important.