Students particularly interested in studying plants can take advantage of course offerings among the Claremont Colleges to construct a biology major with a strong emphasis in plant biology. The Botany Program of the Claremont Graduate University, Harvey Mudd College, the Joint Sciences Department of the Claremont Colleges, and Pomona College collectively offer a wide variety of plant biology courses, including: anatomy and morphology, ecology and evolution, physiology, growth and development, systematics, phylogenetics, plant-animal interactions, molecular biology, and population genetics.
Research opportunities for undergraduates are available with faculty at all of the campuses. Graduate research opportunities are available at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (home of the Botany Program of the Claremont Graduate University ) and the Keck Graduate Institute for Applied Life Science. Research and courses at the Claremont Colleges take advantage of excellent facilities including modern molecular and field biology laboratories, instrumentation for measuring variable fluorescence, CO2 and oxygen exchange in leaves, flash spectrophotometry, HPLC, ultracentrifuges, oxygen polarographs for measurements on isolated chloroplasts, and a digital microscopy facility. In addition, access is available to a comprehensive herbarium (over one million specimens), wood and pollen slide collections, an automated DNA sequencer, a scanning electron microscope, long-term seed storage facilities, state-of-the-art greenhouses and growth chambers, experimental plots, and extensive California native living plant collections at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. There are also close-at-hand field research opportunities at the adjacent Bernard Biological Field Station (a Claremont University Consortium [CUC] facility)
Claremont Plant Biology Faculty: David W. Becker, J. Travis Columbus, Norman C. Ellstrand, Elizabeth A. Friar, Frances M. Hanzawa, Lucinda A. McDade, J. Mark Porter, Linda M. Prince, Animesh Ray, Kathrin Schrick, Diane M. Thomson, Mary E. Williams, Carol A. Wilson.