To understand plants and all their aspects, including their life processes, structures, and growth patterns; to understand the relationships between plants, as well as between plants and animals.

How do different plants function? How are they structured? How do plants differ in their needs? How do plants interact with other plants? How do they interact with the environment? How do they interact with animals? What threatens plants? How important is the native environment to the growth and propagation of plants?

The main information used by botanists is plants themselves. They observe plants in their natural habitats. They observe them in artificial environments. They compare plants. They use information about seeds. They look at how plant cells function. They observe how plants grow. They observe how animals interact with plants. They look for pathology in plants.

Botanists make judgments about the differences between plants, about how they best function and thrive, about pathologies within plants, about how they interact with other plants, about how they interact with animals.

The most fundamental concept in botany is the concept of photosynthesis, since plants are defined as multicellular organisms that carry out photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the food-making process within plants, which uses sunlight as its energy source. Photosynthesis is made possible through chlorophyll, a green pigment in plants, which enables plants to make their own food using carbon dioxide, minerals, and water. Thus, chlorophyll is another key concept. Other important concepts used to guide botanical thinking are: plant anatomy (the study of internal plant structure), plant cytology (the study of plant cells), plant morphology (the study of the forms and shapes of plants), plant physiology (the study of how plants grow, breathe, make food, etc.), plant pathology (the study of plant disease), plant taxonomy (the naming of plants and plant groups), and plant ecology (the study of the plant in relationship to its habitat).

Botanists make the following assumptions:

1) plants should be grouped according to structure and growth patterns;

2) the land plants that we study today evolved from ancient water plants;

3) inheritance laws control the way plant parents pass certain characteristics on to their offspring;

4) the study of plants is important, regardless of any implications for human decision-making;

5) the study of plants is nevertheless necessary since all animals depend upon plants for food, and important implications follow from studying plants.

Though botany is a pure science, there are important implications of botanical thinking. Botany can make a significant difference in the preservation and enhancement of plant life. It can lead to a greater understanding of the medicinal qualities of plants, and hence to improved medicine. But it can also be inadvertently used in negative ways, as in the use of pesticides that cause damage to human and animal life.

Botanists look at plants as essential to the survival of all living creatures.