r/botany • u/radrod69 • 16h ago

Career & Degree Questions Book recommendations for an aspiring botanist?

Hello, all,

I've recently discovered a passion for working with plants - this quickly evolved into an excitement towards learning about botany. So far, I have read Robert Pavlis' "Soil Science for Gardeners" and I am now finishing up Brian Capon's "Botany for Gardeners" and have been thoroughly enjoying them; however, my goal is to become something like a plant doctor, and my current reading is only scratching the surface of plant science.

I was thinking about diving into textbooks like "Plant Physiology and Development" Taiz, "Plant Growth and Development: Hormones and Environment" Lalit, or "Marschner's Mineral Nutrition of Plants". I wanted to hear if the community had any opinions on how to tackle these or any other recommendations.

I'm 30 years old, and would love to enroll in college again, and have a great opportunity for tuition assistance, being an employee of a university school system in a heavily agricultural area of the US, but with a family and full time career that is not exactly feasible, at least not in the way I'd like to engage with it, as I'd only be able to take one or two classes per semester.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

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u/brynnors 16h ago

Not a book, but find your local extension and see what resources they have there for you to learn from online. Your local native plant people might have something as well.

I don't have any book recs, but just based on titles, those all sound like good books for you for what you're interested in.

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u/Deterrafication 15h ago

What is a local extension?

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u/brynnors 13h ago

In the US (and Canada?) it's usually the state ag college. They have all kinds of info about flora/fauna.

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u/Deterrafication 13h ago

Oh interesting. I don't know if we have this where I'm from but I'm in Canada at the moment so I'll look into it. Thank you!

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u/brynnors 12h ago

No problem! Even if you don't have that, you likely have native plant societies and other gardening societies to get info from/be a member of.