In addition to offering two program options for students majoring in botany, the Department of Botany at Manoa provides a number of courses available to non-majors who have little or no background in the sciences but who may wish to learn something more about plants.
Our basic course is General Botany (Bot 101, 3 credits, given both fall and spring semesters), a survey of the importance of plants in our environment, how plants grow, their many uses as food, drugs, and other essential materials, and their general biology and evolution. It is designed for non-majors as well as being an introduction to higher level courses for botany majors. There is a lab (Bot 101L, 1 credit, both semesters) that goes along with this course that includes a couple of field trips. Although the lectures may be taken without the lab, the study of plants in the laboratory, including experiments and microscope work, is strongly recommended for enhancing the learning experience. Bot 101 and 101L earn credit in the University Core as a Natural Science.
The cultural uses of plants in Hawai'i and the Pacific are studied in Ethnobotany (Bot 105, 3 credits, fall semester). There are two lectures and one laboratory demonstration a week. This course earns credit in the University Core as a Social Science.
The impact and role that fungi have in nature, in some key historical events, on our everyday lives, and in religious ceremonies in some cultures are studied in Botany 135. This is a 3 credit lecture course and is offered on alternate years, during the fall semester.
Campus Plants (Bot 160, 2 credits, spring semester) provides the opportunity for non-majors to become familiar with the plants commonly encountered on campus and elsewhere in the urban environment of the Hawaiian Islands. This is a lab-based course that meets twice a week.