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Botany Syllabus 2024

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Taonga Makusa
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14 views

Botany Syllabus 2024

Uploaded by

Taonga Makusa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COURSE TITLE: AGRICULTURAL BOTANY

COURSE CODE: GAB 111

Aim

To classify, identify and describe the morphological features of important crop species grown in
Zambia and gain an understanding of some physiological aspects affecting crop productivity.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course, the students should be able to:

1) Classify important crop species grown in Zambia by phyla, families, genera and species

2) Identify and relate the different morphological features of plants to their respective functions

Course Outline

Unit 1: Taxonomy of Plants and Fungi

● Plant taxonomic classification - Botanical Nomenclature, the Binomial System

● Horticultural and field crop families and species, hybrids, varieties and cultivars

● Classes of Fungi

● Fungal reproduction

● Pathogenic fungi

● Edible fungi

Unit 2: Hierarchical organization of plant anatomy: Cells and Tissues

● Plant cells - types of plant cells

● Plant tissues - primary and secondary growth

Unit 3: Vegetative morphology

● Leaves - leaf structure and arrangement

● Stems - stem forms

● Roots - Root structure (tap root, adventitious roots)

● Monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous distinctions


Unit 4: Reproductive morphology: flowers and fruit

• The flower - inflorescence (panicle, umbel, composite head)

• Fruits - Simple, aggregate, multiple

• Reproductive growth and development - pollination, fertilization, fruit setting

Unit 5: Anatomy of selected food crops

● Cereals

● Legumes

Unit 6: Seed and the developing embryo

• Seed Structure

• Seed Germination

• Seed dormancy

Unit 7: Phytohormones

● Roles in plant growth regulation

● Plant response to environmental stimuli

Unit 8: Crop establishment

• Asexual propagation

• Sexual propagation

● Plant population

● Crop growth stages: fleekes growth stages and zadox decimal codes

Unit 9: Photosynthesis and growing plants

• Photosynthesis - the photosynthetic apparatus

• Light transformation into energy

• Gas Exchange

Unit 10: Movement of water, nutrients and assimilates through a plant

● Mechanisms of water and nutrient uptake


● Absorption and transport of mineral nutrients

● Translocation of sugars

● The transpiration stream

● Food and water storage organs

Unit 11: Biotic and abiotic stress and yield

● Water stress

● Crop mixtures

● Interspecific and intraspecific competition

● The yield gap concept

Unit 12: Yield and yield components

● Biological and economic yield

● Measures of crop productivity

● Yield components

Unit 13: Post-Harvest crop deterioration

● Fruit ripening

● The senescence process

● Developmental and physiological effects of ethylene

Mode of delivery;

4 hours of lectures per week

Two (2) hours of practicals/ field work per week

1 hour of tutorial session per week

Staffing: 2 Lecturers

Prescribed text

Raven, P.H, Evert, R.F and Eichhorn, S.E.2012. Biology of Plants 8th Edition; Worth Publishers;
ISBN: 0-87901-532-2.
Recommended Text

Hay, R. K. M. and Porter, J. R. 2006. The Physiology of Crop Yield. Blackwell Publishing.
ISBN 1 4051 0859 2 / 978-1 4051 0859 1

Maiti, R.,Satya, P., Rajkumar, D and Ramaswamy A. 2012. Crop Plant Anatomy.Cabi.ISBN:
978-1-78064-019-8 icals per week

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