NNMK26001U Tropical Botany

Volume 2026/2027
Content

Tropical Botany focuses on plant knowledge in a broad sense covering identification, systematics, distribution, ecology and human uses of plants. It covers important crop plants, timber trees, non-timber forest products, medicinal plants, ornamentals as well as ecologically important species.

During a series of lectures and exercises, the students will become familiar with taxonomic principles, botanical terminology, plant morphology, occurrence of plant families around the world, related to climate, evolution, biogeography, plant ecology, pollination, fruit and seed dispersal.

Alongside these overall principles, the course will go through a large number of selected plant families highlighting morphological characters, genera and species, and their systematic relationships. Some of these will be presented by students.

Students will work with plant material in the form of fresh samples, herbarium specimens and biocultural materials. Along with classroom-based teaching, students will also be taught at the Natural History Museum of Denmark in the Botanical Garden and Herbarium, working directly with the Museum’s collections. Students will also be introduced to various web-based information sources, floras and Apps.  

Students will produce a report on an in-depth study of a selected topic, plant family or group of families during the progression of the course. The selected topic should include several elements of the course curriculum.

Learning Outcome

After this course, students will be able to:

Knowledge:

  • Identify important tropical plant families through analysis of morphological characters
  • Describe a plant using the proper botanical terms
  • List the most important usages and ecological requirements of a selection of tropical plants
  • Research characteristics, properties, and use of a plant from online resources
  • Correctly classify a species taxonomically 
  • Apply the correct scientific and English names of tropical plants
  • Relate species morphology and characters to ecological adaptations such as habitat, pollination or regeneration

 

Skills

  • Gather, analyze, critically evaluate, and communicate knowledge on plants families, species, and use
  • Identify species with the aid of appropriate floras, Apps or on-line sources
  • Assess a species’ potential use to humans as e.g. crop, medicinal, timber, toxic etc. based on knowledge of its taxonomic affiliation 

 

Competences

  • Advise about plant biodiversity and sustainable production
  • Recommend species for evaluation e.g. as future crops or ornamentals
  • Provide an inventory of species in an area
  • Make recommendations about protective measures for local flora

Please see absalon page.

Basic botany
Academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree is recommended.
About two thirds of the course will be allocated for classroom lectures, exercises and visits to the botanical garden and herbarium. Exercises will include plant morphology, use of identification sources like floras and Apps, botanical illustration and use of DNA sequence data. About one third of the course will be dedicated to independent study of the students’ chosen topic and a written assignment.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 32
  • Preparation
  • 110
  • Theory exercises
  • 42
  • Guidance
  • 20
  • Exam
  • 2
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Individual
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment, Prepared during course
Oral examination, 30 minutes
Type of assessment details
Written assignment followed by 30 minutes oral exam. The written assessment involves the production of a scientific poster on a particular plant family or topic. This must be handed in 1 week before the exam week. The oral exam accounts for 50% and the written course assignment (prepared during the course) 50% towards the total mark. An overall assessment is made after the oral exam.
Examination prerequisites

Student presentation of chosen families.

Aid
No aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
One internal examiner
Re-exam

same as the ordinary exam.

The written assigment must be handed in 1 week before the reexam week.

If the requirements are not met, the student must do the presentation of chosen 'crop(s)' to the course coordinator two weeks before the reexamination at the latest.

Criteria for exam assesment

Please see learning outcome