Abstract
Economic botany is the study of plants that are directly or indirectly of benefit of man, his livestock and the maintenance of the environment. The latter includes species used for soil stabilisation, shade, etc. However, in order to avoid embracing the entire plant kingdom, some form of conscious or subconscious management must be involved. The benefits may be domestic, commercial, environmental or purely aesthetic; their usefulness may belong to the past, the present or the future. In this context, ‘economic’ is used in the sense of utilitarian rather than for monetary gain and includes plants that are commercially cultivated and marketed (agricultural,horticultural and forestry crops) as well as wild plants utilised in the domestic economy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wickens, G.E. (1998). Economic Plants, and Arid and Semi-Arid Lands of the World. In: Ecophysiology of Economic Plants in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands. Adaptations of Desert Organisms. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03700-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03700-3_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-08089-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-03700-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive