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 horticulture
agronomy
turf
landscape design biotech
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Note from the Department Head Bob Augé
It's fantastic. They allow our existence. We eat them, we wear them, we build our homes from them. I'm sitting on a piece of one now. We fill our lives with so many plant products. And now we are beginning to fuel our vehicles with them. Their presence on Earth these many millions of years created an atmosphere that allows us to breathe. And plants are our greatest hope for scrubbing the elevated carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere that is upsetting global balances. So often, plants are simply the green blur in our peripheral vision as we speed through our daily lives. We sooo take them for granted. Our lives and the lives of so many other species depend on plant health and diversity. Plus, they are spectacularly gorgeous.
We chose the name Plant Sciences in 2002 because it is simple and speaks to the broad spectrum of work we do in plant agriculture, biology & environmental sciences. A more descriptive -- but a bit unwieldy -- name for our department would be Applied & Fundamental Plant Sciences, Arts & Technology, Horticulture & Agronomy, and Turf & Landscape Design.
Dozens of turfgrass genera, species and varieties. Hundreds of agronomic row-crop varieties. Hundreds of ornamental annual and perennial flowers. Hundreds of modern and heirloom vegetables. Hundreds of native herbaceous and woody plants. Hundreds of weedy and invasive species. Assembling this breadth of expertise into one department has many payoffs in terms of novel and productive approaches to teaching, research and extension.
A landscape architect and agronomic weed scientist discussing approaches for controlling unwanted plants that have volunteered onto our tool shed’s new green roof. A landscape architect connecting with a turfgrass stress physiologist to scheme about environmentally friendly golf course design. A weed scientist partnering with a vegetable horticulturist to discover that low doses of a particular herbicide increase health-promoting substances.
A rice functional genomicist and horticultural entomologist planning an investigation of volatile compounds arising from dogwood leaves that may attract predators of dogwood insect pests. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. A monocot genetics expert teaming with a public horticulturist on a planting of biofuel plants in the UT Gardens.
This diversity of knowledge across plant-minded scientists and educators has helped in building strong, interdisciplinary investigative, academic and outreach programs.
All of our programs relate to agricultural security and landscape stewardship. Like horticulture and agronomy departments across the USA, economic and environmental sustainability are a key focus for our programs.
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Copyright ©2006 The University of Tennessee · Department of Plant Sciences |
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Look around.... green, in every direction. 
One way to get a sense of who we are is to view even a very partial list of the plants we investigate and teach in any given year: cotton, poplar, tomato, grapes, herbs, switchgrass, pumpkins, soybean, diesel tree, dieffenbachia, corn, alfalfa, sorghum, peaches, apples, ornamental grasses, tobacco, brocolli, palmer amaranth.... 
It’s fun to witness interactions at seminars, faculty meetings, student discussions: 
A vegetable horticulturist teaming up with a bean breeder to develop an exceptionally good-tasting edemame for the US market. 
This of course is the tip of the iceberg. As one who reviews the many and exciting accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students, I see many dozens of such examples every year. And we have as many partnerships beyond the department as within: with industry, government agencies, and other units at UT and many other universities throughout the country and the world.
