The Botanical Conservatory supports the university’s teaching and research missions by providing diverse living plant collections that enhance hands-on learning and faculty scholarship across disciplines. From biology and ecology to systematics and ethnobotany and even art classes, the Conservatory offers students direct experience with plant form, function, and adaptation, while also serving as a valuable resource for faculty research. Courses across campus regularly incorporate these collections to deepen student engagement and connect classroom concepts to the natural world.
Courses Supported by the Conservatory
ART 002 — Beginning Drawing (5 units)
Course Description: Introduction to drawing using various black and white media to articulate forms and organize space, with reference to historical and contemporary works. May be taught abroad.
BIS 002B — Introduction to Biology: Principles of Ecology & Evolution (5 units)
Course Description: Introduction to basic principles of ecology and evolutionary biology, focusing on the fundamental mechanisms that generate and maintain biological diversity across scales ranging from molecules and genes to global processes and patterns.
BIS 002C — Introduction to Biology: Biodiversity & the Tree of Life (5 units)
Course Description: Introduction to organismal diversity, using the phylogenetic tree of life as an organizing theme. Lectures and laboratories cover methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, current knowledge of the tree of life, and the evolution of life's most important and interesting innovations.
PLB 105 — Developmental Plant Anatomy (5 units)
Course Description: Structural anatomy of vascular plants. Training in basic tissue sectioning, staining, and use of the compound microscope.
PLB 119 — Population Biology of Invasive Plants & Weeds (3 units)
Course Description: Origin and evolution of invasive plant species and weeds, reproduction and dispersal, seed ecology, modeling of population dynamics, interactions between invasive species, native species, and crops, biological control. Laboratories emphasize design of competition experiments and identification of weedy species.
PLS 002 — Botany & Physiology of Cultivated Plants (4 units)
Course Description: Holistic introduction to the underlying botanical and physiological principles of cultivated plants and their response to the environment. Includes concepts behind plant selection, cultivation, and utilization. Laboratories include discussion and interactive demonstrations.
PLS 012 — Plants & Society (4 units)
Course Description: Dependence of human societies on plant and plant products. Plants as resources for food, fiber, health, enjoyment and environmental services. Sustainable uses of plants for food production, raw materials, bioenergy, and environmental conservation. Global population growth and future food supplies.
PLS 116 — Plant Morphology & Evolution (5 units)
Course Description: Structure and evolution of terrestrial plants. Evolutionary and developmental origins and adaptive significance of both reproductive and vegetative structures, in the context of current understanding of phylogenetic relationships.
PLS 127 — Systematics of Vascular Plants (5 units)
Course Description: Diversity, phylogeny, and taxonomy of lycophytes, ferns, and seed plants (gymnosperms and angiosperms), emphasizing relationships and distinguishing characteristics of families and genera represented in the California flora. Principles and methods of phylogeny reconstruction, classification, and plant nomenclature. Practice identifying plants to species using taxonomic keys.