Human-Plant Interactions (X211) should appeal to anyone who has considered
how humans have altered the botanical landscape so effectively that grassy
golf courses now flourish in the desert of California.  It will appeal to
those curious about the sources of traditional medications and about modern
uses of pharmacologically active plant compounds, and to those who would
like to know what our food crops looked like before selective breeding-- and
the reasons that selective breeding works.  It will appeal
to students who are unsure whether they like science, but have questions
about the natural (and artificial) world, such as concerns about transgenic
plants, or bio prospecting in tropical rain forests.  The course will be
primarily biological, and there will be little or no math involved. The
focus of the course is on understanding and discussing concepts, and
critically evaluating experiments, not memorizing lists of plant parts and
species names.

The course will be divided loosely into thirds.  The first part of the
course will be devoted to the study of plants as food, and will include
short lectures, readings, and discussions about the history of agriculture,
the botanical and chemical aspects of some food and spice crops, the
co-evolution of humans and crop plants, and modern agriculture
techniques (including genetic engineering of crop plants).   The second part
of the course will consider plants as medicine.  This section will cover the
self-medication of non-human primates, some traditional uses of medicinal
plants in several human cultures, and modern searches for cures for human
diseases using chemicals derived from plants.  The final section of the
course will cover other biological and cultural aspects of material
products of plants used by humans, such as wood products, paper, cotton,
oils, resins, coffee, etc.  In the final section, we will also discuss the
effects of humans and their agricultural practices on the distribution and
diseases of plant species, and some conservation issues.  Grades will be
based on three components:  Three 4-5 page papers summarizing and evaluating
primary research articles (15% each), completion of short
weekly worksheets based on readings for class (45%), and class participation
(10%).  There will be no exams.