Department
of Agricultural Botany

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture
Svetošimunska cesta 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Pavilion 1, 2^nd Floor

Teaching activities

The Department of Agricultural Botany continuously teaches botany with a large number of students. Areas of work are: systematic botany, anatomy and morphology, taxonomy, flora and vegetation of grasslands, flora mapping - GIS, endangered habitats and the distribution of rare and endemic species, ethnobotany.

Scientific and research activities

The scientific and professional activity of the department of Agricultural Botany is focused on floristic, morphological-anatomical and ecophysiological research of various cultivated and wild vascular plant species of the Croatian flora. Research on the influence of elevated concentrations of tropospheric ozone on the anatomical structure of agricultural crops deserves special mention. Research on flora and vegetation occupies an important place, which mainly includes grassland and weed vegetation and successive stages of grassland vegetation. Potentially new sites, endangered habitats and the general distribution of rare and endemic plant species in Croatia are also being studied. Within the framework of floristic research, the department is engaged in mapping the flora in the Adriatic and continental parts of Croatia. Within the broader taxonomic research, which includes morphological-anatomical, cytological and molecular aspects, special attention is paid to certain plant genera and endemic and rare species of Croatian and Mediterranean vascular flora, which are of wider botanical interest. Part of the scientific work of the department is related to the study of morphological and molecular diversity of forage plant species with the aim of preserving the diversity of plant genes in the banks and their in situ and ex situ protection. Recently, part of the scientific activity has been focused on ethnobotanical research. The activities of the department are mainly in the scientific section of biotechnical sciences, branch ecology and environmental protection.

Experiment stations and laboratories

Within the department, the internationally registered herbaria collection ZAGR was established in 2013, which currently contains about 10.000 specimens of vascular plants. The staff of the department is trained to provide scientific and professional services such as the identification of plant species, the preparation of ecological studies and the assessment of the state of plant diversity.

History

The Department of Agricultural Botany was founded in 1919. Since 1934 the lessons in pavilion I are held in a microscope practical course with 48 microscopes. An experimental garden of about 1 ha was created and a small greenhouse was installed in the attic of the building of pavilion I. In the period from 1970 to 1990 the staff of the department taught other disciplines besides botany: floriculture, phytocenology, plant physiology, phytophysiology, cultivation of ornamental and park plants. The department's teaching staff contributed significantly to the establishment of new subjects, which were created on the basis of Bologna declaration in 2005. Since then, classes have been taught in a series of undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses. From 2004 to 2011, the staff of the department participated in teaching botany at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Technology, at the University of Mostar, at the inter-university study Mediterranean Agriculture in Split and at the Polytechnic "Marko Marulić" in Knin.