Web Resources for Plant Biology

This site is not pretty but it's practical. Click the links for cool things to learn or many images --- or both!
Questions? Suggestions? contact Dr. Toby. Back to DC ACTS
(updated December 7, 2003)

• Flora of the Washington Baltimore Region (Smithsonian)Image Gallery here
• Dictionary, index of leaf shapes, pests, plant descriptions (Burpee, a commercial site)
• Plant terminology
• Print reference list from the USDA National Agricultural Library
• Botanical Society of America (a scientific society) image collection
• Careers in botany
• Allelopathy --- how plants inhibit other plants in their territory!
• Designer Seeds --- download the article as a pdf file from this link
• White Willow, the original source of aspirin. How aspirin works earned Nobel Prizes in 1982

Course Outlines

Plant Anatomy

Plants and Civilization

• Arizona State University and here
• St Ambrose University
• Stanford
• St Joseph's University

Images

• DC Flower Gallery
• Flowering Plant Families
• Diatoms Life History and Ecology
• Weeds (of Australia) US National Park Service Weed ID Resources
• Flowering Plants important to civilization

Botany Course Syllabi

• Tuskegee University and here
• Morehouse
• Spelman
• Howard
• Palomar College
• Texas A&M
• Harvard
• UIUC
• UC Davis --- and here --- course outline on P2 --- and here for more examples
• Georgetown
• George Washington
• Trinity
• Florida A&M
• NC State
• UNC
• Tennessee State
• UMBC

Famous Botanists

• GW Carver

Images of Plant Tissues

Handouts from a Virginia Tech Plant Taxonomy Course

Strawberry resources

• Strawberry anatomy
  • Dissecting a fruit
• Taxonomy Fragaria ananassa
• DNA
• Propagation
• Pests and problems with chemical treatments
• Pathogens
  • Strawberry wilt Identify disease using knowledge of plant parts

Histories of the strawberry

• Horticulture
• History of the strawberry
• Short history of the strawberry
• Cherokee legend on the origin of the strawberry

Plants and...

• Light
  • How do plants see light?
  • Experiment on the role of colored mulch on growth (contributed by Maia)
  • Strawberries and artificial light
• Soil
  • helping people understand soils
  • composting
  • mycorrhizae
  • tests and here and here. All land grant colleges provide soil testing for state residents. Test kits
  • components and here and here (advanced---take the challenge!)
  • The Dirty Facts!
  • a soil chemistry course at University of New Hampshire
  • periodic table of the elements
  • soil hydroponics
• Water
  • role of plants in water filtration
• hydroponics
• Test kits and here
• Fertilizer
  • The Fertilizer Institute
  • International Fertilizer Institute
  • IFDC
  • components visit the periodic table here
• Hormones
  • auxins, kinetins, gibberellins
• Remote sensing and farm management
• Space travel

Industrial biotechnology

• ethanol
• plastics

Paleobotany (plants in the fossil record)

Send comments on these sites to Dr Toby! Please identify the site (copy and paste the URL into your e-mail message) and describe your highlights, questions, comments (and negatives) after visiting the site (s).

Experiments

• How do plants see light? http://www.florence.ars.usda.gov/kidsonly/middle/mulch3.html
• Experiment on the role of colored mulch on growth http://www.florence.ars.usda.gov/kidsonly/middle/mulch10.html
• Strawberries and artifical light http://www.growingedge.com/community/archive/read.php3?c=HE&q=588
• Hydroponic strawberries http://www.growingedge.com/community/archive/search.php3?query=strawberries&c=all
• Plant form and function http://www.colorado.edu/epob/epob3140bowman/3140-03.html
• Chemical ecology (allelopathy)

• What is the difference between a parasitic root and a mycorrhizae?
• What does the root cap do?
• How do endodermal cells differ from other types of cells?
• Define the following terms
  • apical, periderm, xylem
• What is the function of a stem?

Get involved!

• 4-H and here and here
• Agriculture in the classroom

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/images/130/Root/

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/images/130/Leaf/

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/images/130/Stem/

http://pc65.frontier.osrhe.edu/hs/science/bplants2.htm vocabulary

http://pc65.frontier.osrhe.edu/hs/science/bplants.htm#one

2.5 wks into program

SOIL

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/1997/971002.htm

soil and stem growth

hormones

cells a bit

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/plants/story7/history.htm

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/plants/story7/frame2.htm

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/scientists/scientistsframe2.htm career descriptions

methyl bromide http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/mb/mebrweb.htm

clear descripton of syllabus

respect students