Your asked for their names, or what they were for, or if you could eat them. It’s fair to say, botany is not just your first science, but humankind’s.
As a student of botany, you know the next step is beyond. It’s one thing to read about a rainforest and another to stand under a tree canopy yourself. The only real question is where to go. Here are two amazing choices for a college tour of amazing plant life. If your school offers either of these choices to study botany, you’ll want to take advantage.
Madagascar: Unique on Earth
An enormous island to the east of Africa that separated from India over 88 million years ago; Madagascar essentially became a world unto itself. As a result, 70-80% of Madagascar’s plant species are found nowhere else on the planet. The island is internally diverse as well. It has a rich distribution of ecosystems from moist cloud forest, to deciduous forests, savannas, wetlands, and coral reefs.
This is a land where baobab trees with huge, solid trunks compete for your attention with the fan of a traveler’s palm spread out like a waving peacock tail. It’s a place where you reach for a twisted brown leaf to find it’s a flat-tailed chameleon. Botanists say that it is not an exaggeration to say that Madagascar is like nowhere else on earth; it’s just literal truth when you study botany.
Guatemala: Something for Everyone
Six hundred species of orchids alone might be reason enough for botanists to make an entire career out of Guatemala. But if that doesn’t lure you, the twenty different ecosystems might. Mangroves, Caribbean coastline, arid areas, and forest — Guatemala offers a wealth of insights into the interrelationships among diverse plant and animal systems.
Unfortunately, Guatemala’s deforestation rates are increasing because economic hardship driving illegal logging into bio-preserves. Botanists interested in conservation efforts to encourage fair trade might work in partnerships with companies like doTERRA. It functions as a global network of essential oil producers working with local farmers to provide a stable network for plant oil production. There is room in Guatemala for developing sustainable botanical trade, as well as room to study and learn.
Writing about a flower he held, the poet Wordsworth marveled, “If I could understand what you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.” Wordsworth understood that botany is the most elemental of the sciences. Let the world be your classroom.
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- Robert Connell Clarke
- Ronin Publishing
- Kindle Edition
- Paul Young
- Harper Perennial
- Edition no. 1st (04/21/1982)
Last update on 2020-03-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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