The branches of forensic botany

Forensic botany refers to the application of plant sciences to the legal process. Hence, forensic botany involves gathering clues from plants to piece together evidence that will assist to solve serious crimes like the cause of death, kidnapping, and murder. There are several branches of forensic botany. Palynology refers to the study of pollen grains, spores, and microscopic plant bodies resistant to acidity to prove or disprove a connection between people, places, and objects that are under investigation in criminal and civil cases. Pollen, spores, and acid-resistant microscopic plant bodies can be used to tell whether a person or object was present at a particular place because different parts of a piece of land, countries, and regions of the world all have their own distinctive pollen and spore assemblage. Forensic dendrochronology refers to the scientific study of dating tree growth rings to determine the exact year in which these rings as a means of offering evidence that criminal activity occurred in this time span. Forensic limnology is the branch of forensic botany that examines the presence and type of diatoms on victims and samples from a crime scene. Plant systematics refers to the process through which plants are classified into different classes and families based on their morphological and genetic characteristics. Hence, forensic plant systematic is the application of this knowledge to the process of solving crimes. All these methods should be supplemented with other methods, such as forensic ecology, confirm the validity of the findings of the forensic botanist.