Economic BotanyBiology 460

Dr. Michael SimpsonDepartment of Biology

San Diego State University

What is a Economic Botany?

Economic:1. of or relating to the production, development,and management of material wealth, as of acountry, business enterprise,or household.

2. of or relating to the practical necessities of life;material.

What is Botany?

Traditionally, study of plants and "fungi"(and formerly bacteria):

organisms with: cell walls & spores.

endosymbiosis:= ancestral engulfmentof a bacterium by aeukaryotic cell, followedby co-dependency

mitochondrion -resembles bacterium:~ same sizecircular DNAreplicates by fissionsimilar size ribosomes (70 S)

chloroplast -resembles photosynthetic bacterium:- all features of mitochondria + photosynthetic membranes (thylakoids)

thylakoids

Botany - study of:

Photosynthetic eukaryotes:

Euglenids

Dinoflagellates

Brown Plants (incl. Brown algae, diatoms)Red algae

Green Plants (including Land Plants)Fungi

Water Molds (Oomycota)

What is a plant?Can be answered in 2 ways

1) By CharacteristicsPhotosynthetic

Cell walls

Spores

Sedentary

2) By Phylogenetic relationships

Green Plants - ChlorobiontaChloroplasts ("green"):

chlorophyll a & bchlorophyll a & b storage product storage product starchstarch thylakoids thylakoids in stacks: in stacks: granagrana

Cell walls with cellulose:(polymer of glucose units: beta-1,4-glucopyranosides;(polymer of glucose units: beta-1,4-glucopyranosides;

starch is alpha-1,4-glucopyranosides)starch is alpha-1,4-glucopyranosides)

Elodea

cell wall

chloroplasts

Green Plant chloroplastthylakoids in grana grana

starch:alpha formof glucose

cellulose:beta formof glucose

Cellulosic cell wall

made of cellulose microfibrils

Green Algae

- A paraphyletic group

- Very diverse in morphology & life cycle

Green Algae

- unicellular- multicellular

-- colonialcolonial-- filamentousfilamentous-- thalloidthalloid

cellulose

"Plants"- generally equated with Land Plants (embyrophytes)

cellulose

Liverworts, Hornworts, Mosses

cellulose

Vascular PlantsLycopods / Lycophytes

Isoetes orcuttii

Selaginella apoda Selaginella bigelovii

Vascular PlantsEquisetophytes: Equisetum

Equisetum arvenseCommon Horsetail

Equisetum spp.Scouring-Rush

Vascular Plants Ferns

Ophioglossum californicumCalif. Adders Tongue

Polypodium californicumCalifornia Polypody

Dryopteris argutaCoastal Wood Fern

cellulose

, wood

Seed PlantsCycads Ginkgo

Cycas circinalis Ginkgo biloba

Abies concolorWhite Fir

Pinus torreyanaTorrey Pine

Cupressus forbesiiTecate Cypress

Conifers

Ephedra spp. Mormon Tea

Gnetales

Welwitschia mirabilis

cellulose

, wood

ANGIOSPERMS - Flowering Pls

parallelvenation

Monocots

1 cotyledon

floral parts in 3s(often)

radicle

epicotyl

hypocotyl

1 cotyledon

embryo

coleorhiza

coleoptile

radicle

epicotyl

1 cotyledon

MONOCOTS

net venation

Eudicots

2 cotyledons

floral parts in 4s or 5s(often)

embryo

seed coat

radicle

epicotyl

hypocotyl

2 cotyledons

endosperm

NON-MONOCOT

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Why study plants? Why important?OxygenPrimary producersEconomically important to humans

agricultural plantsflavoring plantseuphoric/hallucinogenic plantsfiber, wood plantsmedicinal plants