Botany 101

Unit three: Botany

Botany is the study of plants. There more than 300,000 species of plants globally estimated by botanists[1]. And about 6,600 of these plant species are found Ethiopia[2].

The hierarchical level of organization in plants follows that of animals.  Plant cells that have similar characteristics/or functions/ come together to form plant tissues. Then plant tissues form five distinct structures (the equivalent of organs in animals). Structures are groups of plant tissues working together with a common function (e.g., roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds).  The different plant structures form two plant systems (the equivalent of organ systems in animals) namely: root and shoot system. Therefore, a plant is made up of a number of coordinated structures to form a working unit (a plant in this case).

In this unit you will be introduced into the basics of organization and structure of plants. Furthermore, basic terms and processes are dealt here along with a brief introduction to the taxonomy(see Figure.1). The detailed taxonomy of plant kingdom is dealt in book 4.

3.1. Taxonomy of plants

 

Figure.1 Chart showing traditional plant taxonomy

3.2. Level of organization in plants

Figure 3. 1. General morphology of plants

 Figure 3. 2. Parts of plant

[1] ተመራመርቲ ስነእፅዋት ( people who study plants )

[2]

3.3. Vegetables…………………….…. ኣሕምልቲ

Vegetables (ኣሕምልቲ) are plants used as foodstuffs. A simple way to classify vegetables is to group them according to their edible parts (i.e which part of them is edible). Thus, vegetables includes: bulbs [ሽጉርቶ], fruit [ፍረ], tuber [ዓካር] and rhizome [ራይዞም][1].

1. Legumes [leguminous] ጥረኣዊ [ጥራምረ]

 The main edible part of these groups of pod-shaped fruits[2] is their seeds, consumed fresh, dried and/or sprouted.

2. Fruits [ፍራምረ]

 Fruits are sually sweet vegetables. The main edible part of these vegetables is their bulb like Onion (ሽጉርቶ: ሽጉርቲ መሰል ሱር ዘለዎም ኣትክልቲ), Rhizome (like potatoe, sugar beet) the where the plant’s nutrient reserves are stored in an underground structure.

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[1] People who eat sol plant/plant product are called Vegetarian [በላዕ ሓምሊ (ስጋ ዘይበልዕ)]

[2] (ለቖታ ከም ናይ ዓይኒ ዓተር) and ; if dried, they often require soaking before they can be cooked. primarily consumed at breakfast, as a snack or for dessert, and used extensively in pastry and candy making