Botany is the study of plants. Students learn plant anatomy and life processes. They also study plant habitats, and the relation of plants to other organisms in the ecosystem.

Plants are generally not as glamorous as animals. There's no cable channel called "Plant Planet." Disney is not likely to make a movie called "101 Dahlias." But imagine a wedding without flowers. Imagine a diet of only meat and milk products. Imagine a wardrobe with no cotton jeans, underwear, or shirts. We depend on plants in so many ways. And the people who grow plants depend on new scientific knowledge to make plants better and easier to grow.

There are a number of specialized plant sciences, but the umbrella that covers them all is botany. A bachelor's degree in botany is a good first step toward graduate study of agriculture. If you want to teach in school, you may get a master's in education. Botany can lead you to further study of some branch of biology, including botany itself. Because of its focus on science, it also may prepare you for medical, dental, or veterinary school. Or you can use it as your key to enter the work force. For example, you might work as a research technician or be a management trainee in a business related to agriculture. The bachelor's usually takes four years of full-time study beyond high school. About 70 colleges offer this program.

In a botany bachelor's program you can expect to spend time in the lab every semester. You study biology, chemistry, and organic chemistry. You may also study biochemistry, especially if you intend to go on to graduate school. From these subjects you learn the basics of how to do scientific research. You learn laboratory skills and how to do experiments. You also study calculus and perhaps statistics.

You study the structures of plants and the biochemical processes that go on within them. Your focus covers the large scale; for example, when you look at the different layers of tissue in a stem. But you also devote a lot of attention to plant cells and the organelles they contain. You learn about the molecules that make up DNA, the cell walls, and the sugars and starches that plants produce. You learn the principles of genetics that control inheritance and expression of traits. You study the evolutionary relationships between different groups of plants. And you learn about the ecological relationships among plants and animals that share a habitat.

Graduate school is the way to prepare for research or college teaching. About 60 universities offer graduate degrees in botany. This usually requires two years of full-time study beyond the bachelor's degree. The doctoral degree usually requires an additional three years beyond the master's. It may take longer if you take on part-time work teaching or assisting with research, but such work helps offset costs and advances your career.

In graduate school you often can specialize in a branch of botany. For example, you might focus on plants of a certain group, such as fungus or algae. You might concentrate on some aspect of plants in general, such as their anatomy or physiology. You generally take courses on several such topics. You do much of your learning in labs, because one of the chief purposes of the program is to teach you research skills. You also study statistics so that you can draw meaningful conclusions from the data that you derive from experiments.

You take several seminars, in which you do research and present it to the class. You may need to do a series of lab rotations. As you work with different researchers, you explore the topics and methods of research that they use. This helps you decide where to focus your own master's or doctoral research projects and whom to choose as a faculty advisor. Toward the end of a doctoral program, you undertake an original research project under the guidance of your advisor. Then, you write up your procedures and findings as your dissertation.