History

The Section of Botany and Mycology derives from the former Department of Botany, directed for many years by Professor Oriol de Bolòs y Capdevila, who was Professor of Phytogeography and Plant Ecology from 1953 until his retirement in 1989. The name of this chair gives an idea of the main scientific orientation that the Department had for many years, and which still today corresponds to a large part of the research lines of the Department.

	The Department of Botany was installed for many years in the old building of the University of Barcelona, ​​on the first floor of the Science Courtyard.			Field sessions with students have always been very important in the teaching of Botany, as illustrated in this picture with students of Botany in 1980.

From the 1960s onwards, this first line of research was complemented by the activity of different disciples of Dr. Bolòs (Drs. Vives, Vigo, Llimona, Cardona...), who developed other fields of study, thanks to the growth of the teaching staff that took place in our University during the last third of the 20th century. In 1982, when the Faculty of Biology moved to the building on Avinguda Diagonal, the number of members and a large part of the structure of the research lines of the Department of Botany were approximately the same as those that have been maintained up to the present day.

Thus, lichenology was developed, including morphological taxonomy and floristic documentation, bioindication and molecular taxonomy; mycology and algaeology of epicontinental waters, with different lines of application; and bryology. As for the study of vascular plants, in addition to the classic lines of floristics and phytosociology, different members of the Department have been working for years on the ecology of plant communities, biosystematics, the development of databases and software for the exploitation and management of biodiversity data, the biology of plant populations, and agroecology.

The departments of Botany and Plant Physiology were merged in 1985 to form the Department of Plant Biology. Currently, they are two separate functional units in the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Both maintain their own teaching and research dynamics, but at the same time they share some activities in both areas, with jointly taught subjects and some joint research projects.

	Herbarium of the University of Barcelona (BCN), installed in the Plant Biodiversity Documentation Centre since 2001, on the Diagonal Sud Campus.		Seed bank cultivation for the study of weed plant communities, in the Experimental Fields of the Diagonal Sud Campus.

The scientific collections generated by the members of the Botany and Mycology Section were formally constituted as a herbarium in 1983, as a result of the transfer to the new building of the Faculty of Biology. The increase in funds thanks to the activity of floristic prospecting and taxonomy made the basement space destined for herbarium insufficient around the year 2000. Partly for this reason, in 2001 the BCN Herbarium was created, uniting that of our Faculty with that of the neighbouring Faculty of Pharmacy. This herbarium, the third in volume on the Iberian Peninsula, was installed in some specifically remodelled spaces in the Baldiri Reixac building, where it forms part of the Plant Biodiversity Documentation Center (CeDocBiV), along with specialized bibliography, thematic cartography and other documentary collections.