Botany Department is one branch of College of Life Sciences, offering a wide range of research and educational programs in plant sciences. Botany covers all aspects of the life of plants. The subject includes plant structure and development, physiology and biochemistry, genetics, as well as their relationships with the environment. Our research focuses on the developmental mechanisms of plants in model organism and crops like Arabidopsis, maize, and wheat.

Currently there are 19 teachers in the department, including 9 professors, 6 associate professors, 4 lecturers. Among them, nine people are doctoral supervisors, ten people have doctoral degrees, and six have oversea educational or working experiences. One faculty member was awarded the title of National 973 chief scientist . One faculty member was elected into the first and second level of the national million talents project. One member won the state council subsidy. One faculty member was elected to the Taishan scholar climbing project of Shandong province and three faculty members were elected into the Taishan scholar program of Shandong province. Two were members of the Changjiang scholar innovation team of the Ministry of Education. Three faculty members became the backbone of the innovation team of Taishan scholars in Shandong province. One faculty member won the first prize for Teaching Quality at Shandong Agricultural University. The department is grounded on a reasonable knowledge structure and age structure of the faculty team with spirits of unity and cooperation, and also on certain leading teachers' team with a high academic level recognized both at home and abroad. The botany department offers the botany course for undergraduates in Shandong Agricultural University, as well as other subjects, such as Advances in life science research, Elementary Biological Experiments (plant anatomy) A1, Elementary Biological Experiments (plant taxonomy) B1, Developmental Biology and so on. Also the department set up courses of Plant Developmental Biology, Cell Biology and Research Methods & Techniques of Developmental Biology for graduate students.

Over the years, led by of the academic leader Xiansheng Zhang, the discipline has become stronger and stronger, and is exhibiting a good developmental trend. In 1999, the department launched a master's program in developmental biology. In 2002, the doctoral program of developmental biology was launched successfully.

In the last five years, the department has successively undertaken the national 973 project, 863 project, national major scientific research project, the national key projects, the national natural science funds, the national program of transgenic plants and more than 20 provincial scientific research projects. The accumulated funds are nearly 50 million yuan.

The faculty has published more than 200 research papers in high level domestic and international academic journals, such as Plant Cell, Plant Journal, Plant Physiology, PLoS Genetics, and so on.