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René Fester Kratz
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Botany For Dummies 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Rene Fester Kratz (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 384 ratings
See all formats and editions
The easy way to score your highest in botany

Employment of biological scientists is projected to grow 21% over the next decade, much faster than the average for all occupations, as biotechnological research and development continues to drive job growth.

Botany For Dummies gives you a thorough, easy-to-follow overview of the fundamentals of botany, helping you to improve your grades, supplement your learning, or review before a test.

  • Covers evolution by natural selection
  • Offers plain-English explanations of the structure and function of plants
  • Includes plant identification and botanical phenomenon

Tracking a typical course in botany, this hands-on, friendly guide is your ticket to acing this required course for your major in biology, microbiology, zoology, or elementary education.

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Previous page
  1. ISBN-13
    978-1118006726
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    For Dummies
  5. Publication date
    June 15, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    14899 KB
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Learn to:

  • Understand how plants reproduce
  • Grasp the structure and function of plants
  • Score your highest grade in botany

The easy way to score your highest grade in botany

Botany For Dummies gives you a thorough, easy-to-follow overview of the fundamentals of botany, helping you to improve your grades, supplement your learning, or review before a test. Covering typical topics in botany, this hands-on, friendly guide is your ticket to acing this required course for your major in biology, microbiology, zoology, or elementary education.

  • Breathe life into botany — get an overview of the fundamentals of metabolism that are common to all living things, and understand why living things need matter and energy to grow and function
  • Get ready to photosynthesize — find out how plants make food from carbon dioxide and water using energy from the sun, and how they break down that food through cellular respiration
  • Let's talk about reproduction — get the 411 on how plant cells divide, either to make exact copies of themselves for growth or to make eggs and sperm for sexual reproduction
  • The many uses of plants — discover the importance of plants to the natural world, and the role they play in food, clothing, fuel, and medicine

Open the book and find:

  • An overview of plant biology
  • The basic chemistry you need to know to understand botany
  • Plain-English explanations of plant tissues
  • The structure of plants
  • The lowdown on photosynthesis
  • Plant reproduction and genetics
  • A look at how evolution has shaped the structure and behavior of plants
  • How we thrive on plants in everyday life

From the Back Cover

Learn to:

  • Understand how plants reproduce
  • Grasp the structure and function of plants
  • Score your highest grade in botany

The easy way to score your highest grade in botany

Botany For Dummies gives you a thorough, easy-to-follow overview of the fundamentals of botany, helping you to improve your grades, supplement your learning, or review before a test. Covering typical topics in botany, this hands-on, friendly guide is your ticket to acing this required course for your major in biology, microbiology, zoology, or elementary education.

  • Breathe life into botany get an overview of the fundamentals of metabolism that are common to all living things, and understand why living things need matter and energy to grow and function
  • Get ready to photosynthesize find out how plants make food from carbon dioxide and water using energy from the sun, and how they break down that food through cellular respiration
  • Let's talk about reproduction get the 411 on how plant cells divide, either to make exact copies of themselves for growth or to make eggs and sperm for sexual reproduction
  • The many uses of plants discover the importance of plants to the natural world, and the role they play in food, clothing, fuel, and medicine

Open the book and find:

  • An overview of plant biology
  • The basic chemistry you need to know to understand botany
  • Plain-English explanations of plant tissues
  • The structure of plants
  • The lowdown on photosynthesis
  • Plant reproduction and genetics
  • A look at how evolution has shaped the structure and behavior of plants
  • How we thrive on plants in everyday life

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005C79LRY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ For Dummies; 1st edition (June 15, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 15, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 14899 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 588 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 384 ratings

About the author

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René Fester Kratz

René Fester Kratz

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I'm a science teacher, writer, wife, and mom (not necessarily in that order!) who lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. At Everett Community College in Everett, Washington (about 40 miles north of Seattle), I teach classes in general biology, cellular biology, microbiology, and global health. In addition to working with my college students, I sometimes work on science teaching with teachers in the local K-12 school systems.

I've basically always loved science -- one of my earliest memories is trying to out-compete a fellow student in elementary school to see who could collect more facts about the solar system! Although that contest was about astronomy, biology proved to be my lasting love. I majored in biology at Boston University, taking lots of classes in botany and microbiology. After that, I worked for a while in a lab devoted to science and science writing before heading to graduate school at the University of Washington, where I earned a Ph.D. in Botany. It was in graduate school that I discovered that I really love helping others learn about science.

Ever since grad school, I've been on a journey to learn how to help others understand science. That journey has led me to learning more about learning itself, as well as to write science books that are designed for non-scientists or students of science (which you can see here on my Amazon page).

In my spare time (hah hah), I'm a mad reader of books of all sorts, a scrapbooker, a good cook, a haphazard gardener, and a wanna be backyard farmer.

If you check out any of my books, I hope you enjoy them and find them useful! If you'd like to take a mini-biology class from me, you can sign up through Ed2Go at http://www.ed2go.com/courses/bio. Science helps us understand the world around us and I truly believe that everyone needs -- and can learn to appreciate -- a little science in their lives.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
384 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Andrea Ashe
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for homeschooling
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2024
Verified Purchase
My 10th grader loves this book. We are doing botany for homeschool and this book is a great start for the course!
One person found this helpful
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Helen D. Setterfield
5.0 out of 5 stars good book
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019
Verified Purchase
I homeschool some friends' children. Two are seventh graders this year and one a ninth. I asked them what they would like to so for science -- each could choose a subject and I would prepare a ten week course on it. One chose botany. I have never taught botany before, although I thought I knew a pretty decent amount in that area. So I ordered this book.

I learned so much! And I was able to take most of the material and simplify it to a jr. hi level. The book is very well done and the part about strange plants at the end got me going on the net for some more examples the kids would like. Because we did cell structure last year, I only need to review it this year. This book, however, does an excellent job of going 'ground up' in terms of the need for information to build on. Highly recommended. (Note -- it is aimed at students who are in college, to help them if something in their course was difficult or confusing, but it is very lay friendly)
9 people found this helpful
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R. Koning
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Botany Information--No Algae.
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is a basic botany book and fills a niche of reasonable coverage (no coverage of green algae which are plants too; no coverage of bacteria and fungie which are NOT plants) at a basic level. It is "no frills" (no photos, no graphs, charts, or experiments) source of botanical information; it reminds me of textbooks of yesteryear when a college book might cost $20. This is NOT a botany book comparable to modern botany college textbooks. So you have basic information only, presented very simply in text. The illustrations are black and white cartoons (graphic arts). For the price it is very good (hence 4 stars). I cannot give this the fifth star because of the very informal writing style (use of contractions which is a feature of conversational English) that sets a poor example before a student. As for any first edition, there are some minor annoying errors. But this is, overall, a solid value.
11 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written for Beginners
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2021
Verified Purchase
Bought this for my daughter and she likes it and uses it frequently. This follows the "for Dummies" model and gives the right level of information for a wide range of level of understanding of Botany.
2 people found this helpful
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Alice
5.0 out of 5 stars DUMMIES books are excellent.
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2022
Verified Purchase
Dummies books are very exact with vocabulary and facts.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Complicated subject explained slowly but surely.
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2014
Verified Purchase
Good book for me, as I was someone with little knowledge of plant botany. The book is true to its name. I felt like a very complicated subject was presented in a way that I could grasp. My understanding of the inner workings of plants has greatly increased!
2 people found this helpful
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KC
5.0 out of 5 stars This book was a fabulous companion to my college botany ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2015
Verified Purchase
This book was a fabulous companion to my college botany class. It helped to simplify those concepts that my textbook just did not quite communicate as sufficiently. Thanks for helping me pass with an A!
4 people found this helpful
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kdee
3.0 out of 5 stars looking for depth?
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2011
Verified Purchase
If you are looking for a book that covers the material covered in a college level botany course, you will like this book. There is a good explanation of chemistry, cell structure, photosynthesis, etc. If you are looking for something simple and more horticultural this book may be too much for you. It is much more about the anatomy and structure of plants than general information about plants. The "for Dummies" series also has some very good less technical books on plants.
13 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Reen Anne Calder
5.0 out of 5 stars It really does explain things beautifully and excellent diagrams too
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2016
Verified Purchase
Wow 😲 what a book 📚 I'm studying my Rhs level 2 and massively struggling, this book is helping so much I can't thank you enough. It really does explain things beautifully and excellent diagrams too. Thankyou so much xxx
10 people found this helpful
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Fergy
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for Plant Sciences!
Reviewed in Canada on May 27, 2014
Verified Purchase
If you need a starter book before you enter plant sciences, this is probably it. Goes into great detail about the vascular system of flowering and non-flowering plant species, as well as the mechanisms for photosynthesis, seed production, etc. Pretty much covers everything. One note: if you want to start a garden or actually begin growing things, this book will not really help you (except it might improve your understanding of how plants work scientifically, which may then lead to better understanding of the horticultural practices associated). Overall, recommended!
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Vibha Naveen Nagpal
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book to know the Basics
Reviewed in India on June 23, 2014
Verified Purchase
I ordered this book as I was curious to know about the inner workings of Plants. I don't have a background in biology or chemistry, and people like me may skip reading about the chemical reactions given in this book.
The book gives a sound base / starting point to plants - and I am sure it will be even more useful for students entering in this field.
One person found this helpful
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Shane
5.0 out of 5 stars As expected!
Reviewed in Canada on July 22, 2020
Verified Purchase
So far this book has been exactly what i expected/wanted from it. A good introduction to the world of botany.

Book arrived on time, and in good shape
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Monstermaher
5.0 out of 5 stars Great in depth botany book for amateurs
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2018
Verified Purchase
Bought this to augment my horticulture studies, this book isn’t for dummies and I think a basic understanding of plant functions would be needed to fully appreciate it. However the book itself is fantastic and explains things very well
3 people found this helpful
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