Plants are vital to our daily lives. Directly or indirectly they provide us with food, fibre and shelter. The oxygen you are breathing was produced by plants, algae and cyanobacteria. We largely feed our motor vehicles and electrical power grid with fuels derived from ancient algae and forests. Studying Botany will empower you to understand and harness the power of plants for a diverse array of applications such as climate change mitigation, ecological restoration and food production.
The Otago Botany program uses New Zealand's idiosyncratic native flora to explore the physiology, ecology and evolution of plants. We explore these themes using plants of all persuasions, from their ancestral cyanobacteria and algae, the primitive non-vascular plants, the iconic ferns, majestic conifers, to the wonderfully diverse flowering plants. A unique aspect of Otago Botany is our treatment of how plants interact with insects, fungi and viruses.
Follow the links to learn more about the different degree programmes Botany can offer, how to go about studying as a postgraduate, and scholarships available:
Kaiāwhina / Māori Student Support
Visit our Kaiāwhina page for information about Kaiāwhina within the department of Botany,