Importance Of Plants In Ivan Van Sertima's They Came Before Columbus

As stated in Ivan Van Sertima's "They Came Before Columbus," the discovery of new plants is not easy. This is important to understand because our work as botanists is far from over. There are so many more innovations in the health and medical fields of plant science. Though many times we see ourselves, as humans, as superior to plants, we rely on them for our everyday processes. Plants give off the oxygen that we breathe, provide us with food, medicine, regulate climate, and even give shelter. In the same way people have evolved over the time, plants have done the same. In my opinion, the most important innovation of plants is for pharmesutical uses. Much like humans, plants, including cotton, are thought to have originated in Africa
and this is important to note when studying phylogenyof plants and how one plant may relate to another.