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  • Botany is the scientific study of plants. This field of study encompasses terrestrial, freshwater and ocean plants, as well as algae and some non-plants like fungi.

    Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

    Seuffert album

    Ferns were especially sought after in the Victorian era (1837–1901). Albums of pressed ferns were the coffee table books of the day. The Seuffert album at Te Papa is one example of these books.

    During the 19th century, botany became one of the most popular areas of European science. In part, this was due to the ease with which people could get involved in collecting, preserving and identifying plants. It was cheap and involved very few tools. The Linnaean classification system had been developed, and this helped to make plants easier to identify.

    Ferns, in particular, were especially sought after in the Victorian era (1837–1901). Albums of pressed ferns were the coffee table books of the day. The Seuffert album at Te Papa is one example of these books. Another example is HB Dobbie’s ‘blue books’ that had full-sized white silhouettes of ferns on a blue background.

    Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

    HB Dobbie’s blue fern albums

    These books have full-sized, white silhouettes of ferns on a blue background and are known as the ‘blue books’. They are made using an early form of photography called the cyanotype process.

    Amateur botanists from this era are an important part of our New Zealand botanical history. Botanists such as Sir Joseph Banks funded and joined expeditions to new lands and collected specimens that still exist today. Other hobbyists, like William Colenso, followed their passion and collected specimens that contributed to the understanding of our New Zealand flora. Still others collected specimens to be made into albums and sold back in England. People were fascinated by plants from new lands and were keen to find out more about these exotic species.

    Explore additional Māori insight – māramatanga Māori – related to botany and botanists.

    Botanists

    Botanists are plant scientists.

    In the Victorian era when scientific study emphasised natural history collections, botanists collected, preserved and identified specimens. Botanists often worked in the field and were involved in discovering and describing many new species. Today, the collections from this era remain important, but the areas of plant science that botanists now work in are much more diverse.

    Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

    Out in the field

    Te Papa builds and maintains its plant collections by a continuing programme of fieldwork throughout the country. Fieldwork is part of Dr Patrick Brownsey's role and involves collecting, documenting and identifying plant specimens from a particular area.

    A botanist today might be interested in structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, chemical properties, ecologybiodiversity or the evolutionary relationships between taxonomic groups. A botanist may work in a lab, in the field, for an agricultural or food technology company, for a pharmaceutical company or in a museum or botanic garden – in fact, in any enterprise involved with plants. Whatever their work, what links these scientists is their common interest in and curiosity about plants.

    Why the interest in plants?

    Each botanist will have their own story about how they became interested in plants.

    My interest in ferns

    Dr Leon Perrie explains how learning about plants opened up a new world for him.

    Plants are all around us. They underpin all life on Earth. In particular, plants provide two of the essentials of human life. They provide all our food (either directly or indirectly), and they provide the oxygen we breathe.

    Plants also play a role in many other aspects of our life. They provide many of our medicines, are involved in regulating the water cycle and are involved in storing carbon. Plants also provide habitats and food for other living organisms. They provide fibres for our clothes (such as cotton and bamboo) and wood for our buildings and furniture. They provide industrial products (rubber and cork, for example) and are a source of fuel (wood, coal, gas and biodiesel). Plants also create aesthetically pleasing indoor and outdoor environments.

    Botany remains an essential study. Plants have a very visible economic role in New Zealand in agriculture and horticulture. We are also realising more about the importance of biodiversity and want to know more about plants that live on Earth. Botany provides tools for investigating and understanding the role of plants in our world.

    Nature of science

    Technology draws on science and contributes to it. In Joseph Banks’s time, botany was mostly about observing, collecting and describing. In our time, due to advances in both science and technology, botany has become more about experimentation and manipulation. As a result, the role of a botanist has changed significantly.

    Related content

    Explore additional Māori insight – māramatanga Māori – related to botany and botanists.

    Meet some botanists – research by botany curators Dr Patrick Brownsey and Dr Leon Perrie at Te Papa provided examples to support the life processes, ecology and evolution concepts within levels 4 and 5 of the Living World strand. They introduce us to the herbarium at Te Papa where over 260,000 plant specimens, including 19,000 fern specimens, are stored and you can find out about the value of early collections and the role of museums.

    Plant specimens collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on Captain Cook’s 1769 Endeavour voyage created the first physical record of New Zealand’s natural history.

    Explore some of the big science ideas in What is a plant? and find out more about the effects of isolation on plant adaptations and speciation in the article The uniqueness of New Zealand plants.

      Published 15 October 2010, Updated 15 February 2024 Referencing Hub articles

        Mātai tipu me ngā kaimātai tipu

        Hutia te rito o te harakeke, kei hea to kōmako e kō? Kī mai ki ahau he aha te mea nui o te ao? Māku e kī atu, he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata.

        If the centre of the flax bush was removed, where would the bellbird sing? If you were to ask me what is the most important thing in the world? I would reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.

        In te ao Māori, all species are related through whakapapa or kinship relationships. In Māori creation stories, everything in the universe is related back to Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother. This framework binds us all through whakapapa.

        Rights: Crown Copyright

        Whakapapa

        In te ao Māori, all species are related through whakapapa or kinship relationships. In Māori creation stories, everything in the universe is related back to Ranginui, the sky father and Papatūānuku, the earth mother. This framework binds us all through whakapapa.

        Whakapapa provides a way to group species, identifying their relationships to each other and tracing their origins. This knowledge is passed down through generations so it then becomes our responsibility to care for that species and the environment it lives in.

        When the first Polynesians arrived in Aotearoa, there were many species of plants they did not have in their homeland. Some did however bear some resemblance to those species found in Pacific regions. One example is the heart-shaped kawakawa plant. Its resemblance to the kava plant found in Pacific islands is likely the reason for the naming of the plant found in Aotearoa.

        Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

        Kawakawa and Kava plants

        When settling in Aotearoa, early Māori found many plants that were similar in appearance to the plants from their Pacific home. The Kava plant found in the polynesian islands was one such plant. They named the species found in Aotearoa, Kawakawa.

        Kawakawa, Judi Lapsley Miller/CC BY 4.0. Kavakava, Kristina Adams/CC BY-NC 4.0, sourced from iNaturalistNZ.

        The naming of plants is an important process. From a Māori perspective, naming gives the organism mana or power as the naming of species establishes connections with others. When Pākehā arrived in Aotearoa, a new system for identifying and naming plants was introduced. Using Linnean taxonomy, two-part Latin names were attributed to the species. The first part was the genus name or name given to those species with similar characteristics. The second part was unique to that species. In modern times, the naming of species still continues as new species are discovered.

        In Aotearoa, scientists are working to respect both systems by utilising, where applicable, names derived from both the Linnean system and mātauranga Māori. For example, in 2011, a new species of Mecodema beetle was discovered in Te Taitokerau (Northland) and scientists asked Te Rūnanga o Te Rarawa Chair Haami Piripi to name the beetle. He named it kokoromatua, meaning head of the whānau, hapū or iwi. The full Linnean name of this beetle has been recorded as Mecodema kokoromatua. This naming process is an authentic representation of the unique biodiversity here in Aotearoa.

        Nature of science

        Iwi Māori have long respected the importance and sacredness of all living things in this world. The connection through whakapapa, genetics and acknowledgement that all living things each possess their respective mana and mauri has been taught and passed through generations.

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