Botany

comes from Latin: βοτάνη = land used for grazing or grass
Is a science of plant life and a branch of biology

The importance of plants:

• • Generating a large proportion of the oxygen and food by the PHOTOSYNTHSIS.
  • PHOTOSYNTHSIS is a process that uses the energy of sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide (CO₂) into sugars, and release oxygen (O₂) into the atmosphere.
  • PHOTOSYNTHSIS takes place at the Chloroplasts that contain green chlorophyll pigments
    Chloroplasts are most abundant in leaf cells

Plant Taxonomy - Systematic botany

science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants

 (שושן צחור) For example taxonomy of Lilium candidum

Names can be given also after:

• Biblical terms: ‘Alon’ (אלון) = oak tree
• Geographic area: Carmel, Yaffo
• People names: Aaronsohnia factorovskyi (אהרונסוניית פקטורובסקי)
•  Named in 1927 by the botanists Otto Warburg after his Colleagues: Aaron Aaronsohn  and Alexander Eig.

Flora of Israel:

• About 2,600 species (out of 410,000 Globally)
• From 130 families (out of 620 Globally)
• Among them 264 species are protected by law
  

• FUNGI – A separate kingdom from Plants

  A group of eukaryotic organisms = organism whose cells have a cell nucleus and other organelles enclosed within membranes.

  • includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms.
  • Fungi are heterotrophs: they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymesinto their environment.
  • Fungi do not photosynthesise
  • Fungi live upon / within / parasite or in symbiosis (mycorrhiza): roots,, trunks, leaves of live or dead organisms, ill organisms or weak

    

• (שרכנים) PTERIDOPHYTA = Ferns

• Vascular plants
• With xylem for water and phloem for sugars
• Reproduces via spores - σπορά = spora, meaning seed
• Ferns first appear in the fossil record about 360 million years ago in the late Devonian period Paleozoic
• Unique life cycle with independent gametophyte and sporophyte phases

  

  PTERIDOPHYTA represented in Israel by two families:

  1.Equisetum = horsetail (שבטבט)

  2.Pterophyta = Ferns (שרכים)

  Equisetum: horsetail (שבטבט)

  • Remain of the late-Paleozoic forests
  • Lives in water area, riversides
  • Can be found at the Snir River Reservation - north Israel

  

  

  

  Ferns in Israel

  Ceterach officinarum  = Scaly spleenwort (דנדנה רפואית)

  Adiantum capillus-veneris =   Southern Maidenhair ((שערות שולמית

  Pteris vittata = Long brake (אברה ארוכת עלים)

(טחבים) BRYOPHITA

• Non-vascular land plants 
• Limited in size 
• Prefer moist habitats
• Do not produce flowers or seeds
• Alternation of generations
• Gametophyte (sexual) and sporophyte
• Reproduce via spores (נבגים)
• Their life cycles are dominated by the gametophyte(sexual) stage
• Lichenis a type of symbiotic organism.
• A composite organism that arises from algaeor cyanobacteria (Single-cell) living among filaments of multiple fungi
• Lichens come in many colours, sizes, and forms: plant-like, tiny, leafless branches, flat leaf-like structures, thin pieces that lie on the surface like peeling paint
• Lichenis a type of symbiotic organism.
• A composite organism that arises from algaeor cyanobacteria (Single-cell) living among filaments of multiple fungi
• Lichens come in many colours, sizes, and forms: plant-like, tiny, leafless branches, flat leaf-like structures, thin pieces that lie on the surface like peeling paint
• Lichenis a type of symbiotic organism.
• A composite organism that arises from algaeor cyanobacteria (Single-cell) living among filaments of multiple fungi
• Lichens come in many colours, sizes, and forms: plant-like, tiny, leafless branches, flat leaf-like structures, thin pieces that lie on the surface like peeling paint
• Lichenis a type of symbiotic organism.
• A composite organism that arises from algaeor cyanobacteria (Single-cell) living among filaments of multiple fungi
• Lichens come in many colours, sizes, and forms: plant-like, tiny, leafless branches, flat leaf-like structures, thin pieces that lie on the surface like peeling paint
• 260 species in Israel are mosses (טחבי עלים) + liverworts (טחבי כבד)

  

  (אצות) ALGAE

  • Large and diverse group of photosynthetic organisms
  • Most are aquatic and autotrophic
  • Algae constitute a polyphyletic (= of many races) group, since they do not include a common ancestor
  • Algae exhibit a wide range of reproductive strategies, from simple asexual cell division to complex forms of sexual reproduction.
  • Algae lack the various structures that characterize land plants, such as: leaf-like-structures,rhizoids,roots, leaves that found in vascular plants.
  • The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds: red (most common: ulva=sea lettuce), green or brown
  • The most complex freshwater forms are the Charophyta, a division of green algae: Spirogyra.

  

  Economic Importance of Algae

  • Food supplement mainly in the Far East
  • Food of the future - by growing algae in the ponds and producing protein from them.
  • Producing solar energy
  • Industries & Researches: Paints, textiles, cosmetics, photography, pharmaceuticals, agar, oxidation pools, genetics studies

• Lichens (חזזיות)

  • Lichen is a type of symbiotic organism.
  • A composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria (Single-cell) living among filaments of multiple fungi
  • Lichens come in many colors, sizes, and forms: plant-like, tiny, leafless branches, flat leaf-like structures, thin pieces that lie on the surface like peeling paint

  • 

    Uses of Lichen

    • Medicine
    • Color Industry - Painting traditional Scottish fabrics
    • Perfumes
    • Flower arrangement
    • Patterns such as trees and bushes in architectur
    • Eating - Few species in the Far East
    • Smoking pipes in southern Sahara