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Francine Antoinette M. Gonzales June 9, 2013

1F-PHAR Dr. Ross Vasquez

ASSIGNMENT # 01

1. Define Botany.

Botany is the scientific study of plants. This definition requires an

understanding of the concepts plants and scientific study. It is a

branch of Biology dealing with plant life, including their growth,

structure, physiology, reproduction and pathology as well as their

economic use and cultivation by humans.

2. Give the importance of plants and examples of each importance.

A. Plants have had and still have a key role in the history of the life

on Earth.

They are responsible for the presence of oxygen, a gas needed

for most organisms that currently inhabit our planet and need it tobreathe. Oxygen is also a byproduct of Photosynthesis, a process of

converting light energy to chemical energy and storing it into bonds of

sugar.

B. Plants are the main source of food.

Everything we eat comes directly or indirectly from plants.

Throughout human history, approximately 7,000 different plant species

have been used by people as food. Consider what our lives would bewithout chocolate, coffee, tea, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, pepper,

strawberries and other food, fruits, drinks and condiments we need in

order to live.

C. Plants are also providers of water.

Plants regulate the water cycle: they help distribute and purify the

planets water. Without water, plants would not also be able to

produce food since water is needed in the process of Photosynthesis.

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Plants also move water from the soil to the atmosphere through a

process called transpiration.

D. Plants provide habitat for organisms, people and animals.

Of course, aside from humans' myriad uses, plants make up the

backbone of all habitats. Other species of fish and wildlife also depend

on plants for food and shelter. Wood we also use in making our shelters

also comes from the trunks of trees.

E. Plants are essential ingredients in providing us drugs or

medicines.

One-quarter of all prescription drugs come directly from or arederivatives of plants. Additionally, four out of five people around the

world today rely on plants for primary health care. An example of a

plant used for medicine is the plant Aloe Vera, which is used for

multiple skin treatments.

3. Define a Scientific Method and enumerate the steps involved.

The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used

to explore observations and answer questions. Scientists use the

scientific method to search for cause and effectrelationships in nature.

In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item

cause something else to vary in a predictable way. Just as it does for a

professional scientist, the scientific method will help us to focus on our

science fair project question, construct a hypothesis, design, execute,

and evaluate our experiment.

(See image below for the steps involved.)

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4. Enumerate the different concepts of understanding plant science.

These concepts will make plant biology more understood the

numerous facts, figures, names and data will be less overwhelming

when you realize that they all fit into the patterns governed by a few

fundamental concepts.

A.Plant metabolism is based on the principles of chemistry and

physics. Weeds may seem to appear from nothing as if by

magic; however that is never true they grow from seeds. All

the principles you learn in your chemistry or physics classes are

completely valid for plants.

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B.

Plants must have a means of storing and using information.

After a seed germinates, it grows and develops into a plant,

becoming larger and more complex; then it reproduces. The

plant is taking in energy and chemical compounds it uses to

build more of itself. This requires a complex, carefully controlled

metabolism, and there must be a mechanism for storing and

using the information that regulates that metabolism. As you

may already know, genes are the primary means of storing this

information.

C.

Plants reproduce, passing their genes and information on to

their descendants. Because an individual obtains its genes

from its parents, the information it uses to control its metabolism

is similar to the information its parent had used; thus, offspring

and parents resemble each other. For example, a bean seed

contains genes whose information guides the seeds

metabolism into constructing a new bean plant, but a tomato

seed grows into a tomato plant because it received different

genes and information from its parents.

D.Genes and information they contain, change. As plants make

copies of their genes during reproduction, accidental changes

(mutations) occasionally occur, and this causes the affectedgene and its information to change. This is quite rare, and most

genes (and information) are passed unaltered from parents to

offspring; however, as mutations occur and change a genes

information, they basically generate new information such that

the plant that grows and develops under the control of the

mutated gene may be slightly (or significantly) different from its

parents. Thus, over time, a gradual evolution occurs in the

genes, information, and biology of plants. Consequently, in alarge population of many individuals of a species, some

variation exists; the individuals are not identical.

E. Plants must survive in their own environment. They must be

adapted to the conditions in the area where they live. If they

are not adapted to that areas conditions, they grow and

reproduce poorly or die prematurely. Other plants whose

genes result in characters that make those plants more suited

to live.