Departmental Research Profile
Botany is a vibrant department, which strives towards the development of a centre of excellence for research and teaching of the ecology, evolution, physiological ecology and systematics of marine and terrestrial plants of southern Africa. The department includes two research units, the Bolus Herbarium and Leslie Hill Institute for Plant Conservation, and is also home to the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism Chief Directorate: Marine & Coastal Management.
Research thrusts include:
- Systematics, floristics, biogeography and evolutionary biology of the unique Cape Floral Kingdom and its response to different land use practices
- Plant population, community and reproductive ecology
- Plant molecular systematics, angiosperm biosystematics
- Bryophyte evolution and ecology
- Biogeography, ecology and economics of marine and freshwater algae
- Ecophysiology of plant responses to pollution and global change and plant nutrition
- Dendrochronology and palaeoecology.
The Plant Conservation Unit is actively researching the conservation status of, and threats to, the Cape Floristic Region, with special emphasis on bio-diversity and restoration ecology, dry land degradation and environmental history.
The Bolus Herbarium undertakes plant taxonomic research with an emphasis on the flora of the Cape Peninsula and curates a specimen collection of over a third of a million southern African species.
Academic staff are also active on Research Councils, policy-making forums and advisory committees.