You Can Be Anything › All careers › Agriculture, Food & Environment
Botanist
Studies plants — their structure, genetics, ecology, and uses in medicine and industry.
Did you know?
A corpse flower can take about 10 years to bloom for the first time, and its stinky flower lasts only 24 to 36 hours.
How subjects help
- Biology: Identify and classify plants, sometimes finding a species no one has named before.
- Chemistry: Extract chemicals from leaves and roots that could become new medicines.
- Environmental Science: Track which plants spread or disappear as a habitat changes over the years.
- Mathematics: Measure plant growth in experiments and compare results to see what makes a difference.
A famous name
Carl Linnaeus: Created the two-part naming system for living things, like Homo sapiens, in the 1700s.
Try it yourself: Watch a bean wake up
- Line the jar with damp kitchen paper and push the bean between the paper and the glass.
- Keep the paper damp (not flooded) and the jar somewhere light.
- Check every day and draw what you see. Does the root or the shoot come first?
- Turn the jar on its side once the root appears. What does the root do next?
Farmers and plant scientists watch germination closely: a strong root first means a healthy crop later.
Also try: Watch an animal for ten minutes.
Known for it in
UK, USA, Brazil, Australia, Netherlands