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Plant Diversity Plant Diversity is a general botany course emphasizing the diversity and life processes of plants and related forms and their evolution and distribution. Botany as a discipline began as herbalism before written records as an oral history more than 10,000 years ago as humans needed to transfer knowledge of useful plants from generation to generation. The first written herbals are the oldest scientific classifications of living organisms where plants were classified as being edible, medicinal or poisonous. Botanists can trace the origin of modern classification of plants to 1753 with the publication of Species Plantarum by Carl von Linné (Carolus Linnaeus). In the Linnaean system "plants" included algae, mosses and related forms, ferns, gymnosperms, flowering plants and fungi. Today, since the application of molecular techniques largely has replaced morphology as the basis for classification and "true" plants (defined by DNA sequences) are restricted only to those reproducing by seeds, the Embryophyta (gymnosperms and flowering plants). By tradition, botany textbooks still include discussions of all photosynthetic organisms from unicellular to multicellular forms as well as the non-photosynthetic fungi. There are an estimated 8.7 million living species of protists, fungi, plants and animals, of which "plants", other photosynthetic organisms and fungi are estimated to represent more than 600,000 species. The number of catalogued and described species discussed in botany textbooks are approximately: true plants (375,000), algae (44,000), mosses and related forms (23,000), ferns (10,600), photosynthetic protists (60,000), and fungi (100,000). Nearly 2,000 new species are discovered and described every year. Course Website Structure Links to the six sections of the textbook and to the lab manual are at the top of every page. Clicking on Plant Diversity at the top left of any course page will return you to the home page here.  Clicking on a section title in the header bar at the top of the page will take you to the home page for that section. The first section of the course, Foundations, contains chapters on biological principles that broadly support each of the later sections. These are chapters that provide background and are typically in the first chapters of any biology textbook. The Diversity section covers early photosynthetic organisms from bacteria and protists to algae and mosses. It also contains the non-photosynthetic fungi. The Vascular Plants section describes the colonization of land and the diversity of land plants from seedless ferns to fruit-bearing flowering plants. The Anatomy and Physiology sections describe the structure and function of elements of the plant body from cells and tissues to reproduction, growth and development. The Ecology section surveys the ecosystems that photosynthesis supports: freshwater ponds, coastal tidelands and oceans; grasslands and woodlands; deserts and rainforests. These sections and chapters support the 4 chapter quizzes and 4 exams assigned during the course. All assignments are "open book / open Internet". There is one 25-point multiple choice quiz due a week before each 100-point essay exam is due. Each quiz is designed to cause you to read the chapters on which each exam is based. Links to quizzes and exams are posted on the Assignments page. When active a link to a quiz will open a quiz page that is filled out and submitted from the course website. The essay exams are created in a word processor such as Word or Google Docs and submitted as word.doc files to Turnitin. Instructions for creating a Turnitin account are below. Establishing a Turnitin Account You will submit your exams through Turnitin which is a website subscribed to by all California Community Colleges. Students can submit papers using a wide variety of word-processing programs. If you already have an account, simply login. Your login is the email address you used to create an account and the password you created at that time. If you do not have a Turnitin account or cannot remember your Turnitin login, simply create a new account following the directions below. 1. Open the Turnitin web site at http://www.turnitin.com 2. Select "Create Account" in the upper right-hand corner. If you already have an account, simply login. Your login is the email address you used to create an account and the password you created at that time. If you cannot remember your Turnitin login, simply create a new account. 3. Select "Student" on the next page. 4. Enter the Turnitin Class ID 49100384 5. Enter the Turnitin Class Enrollment Key fall25 6. Complete your User Information and click "I Agree--Create Profile". How to Purchase the Textbook Subscription The textbook for the course requires an individual subscription to a web-based digital textbook. Required course assignments are linked from the textbook. If you are a Promise student or using Financial Aid or a scholarship for purchase, order through the Campus Bookstore to receive the Access Code ($117.50) for free. If you are purchasing the textbook privately, take advantage of the publisher's discounted price ($60) following the instructions below. Textbook: Friesen, Larry Jon and Robert J. Cummings. 2025. Plant Diversity. NatureJournal. ISBN: 978-1-942380-10-8.
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