The Department of Botany of this University came into existence with the establishment of the Faculty of Science in 1958. The founder member and the first Head of the Department, Dr. Rajendra Sahai has been a renowned ecologist. Later, the first Professor and Head of the Department Prof. K.S. Bhargava, was the first student of Prof. F.C. Bowden. He was an able administrator and meticulous performer. Under his able Headship the first Botany course structure and syllabi were designed. Prof. Bhargav initiated research in Mycology and Plant Pathology in the Department which attracted the best talent and meritorious students to opt for M.Sc. degree in Botany. He also inspired other teachers of his time to start research work in their respective fields. U.S.PL480 scheme was sanctioned to Prof. Bhargava to characterized viruses affecting sugarcane. His successor Prof. S.N. Mathur initiated research in Plant Physiology and provided effective leadership to the Departmental progress. Prof. Mathur was able to arrange International Chapter of Plant Physiologists of SAARC countries. In addition, many seminars and symposia were organized in his regime giving a great impetus to researchers of the Department. His successor Prof. S.N. Dixit, an eminent Botanist and excellent teacher, provided amicable leadership and affectionate guidance to the Department. Prof. Dixit initiated the work in Plant embryology in light of the rich flora of the area. He later switched on to taxonomy of the Angiosperm and produced a vast array of Ph.D. students in floristics. He and his team worked out the flora of eastern U.P. In addition, Prof. Dixit established a strong group of workers in the field of antimicrobial principles from higher plants. Later Prof. R.D. Joshi followed Prof. Dixit, he headed the Department for a short spell. His successor Prof. P.C. Mishra, an excellent teacher, emphasized and promoted the course of standard teaching and laboratory exercises during his tenure. The UGC provided a grant to start Industrial Microbiology as a vocational course under the leadership of Prof. P.C. Mishra. Prof. Mishra successfully started the course and the subject is now offered to the students of B.Sc. as an option, under SFS scheme. Currently, Department of Botany offers the Degrees of M.Sc. Botany as well as M.Sc. Microbiology. Similarly Ph.D. in Botany as well as in Microbiology is offered by the Department. After Prof. Joshi, Prof. Kamal, a well-known mycologist gave new impetus to research activities especially in the field of Microbial Taxonomy. His successor Prof. S.K. Singh, taxonomist and field botanist par excellence endeavored not only for the upliftment of the Department but also provided valuable contribution to the beautification and landscape and avenues of University Campus. It was the regime of Prof. Singh during which many medicinal and rare plants were introduced in the botanical garden of the Department. Prof. (Mrs.) Kalawati Shukla a virologist succeeded Prof. S.K. Singh and provided leadership to the Department for seven years. She was a great administrator and academician; she worked on characterization of plant viruses. Her successor Prof. S.C. Tripathi while working towards Development of herbal pesticides organized various seminars, symposia and conferences thereby disseminating the knowledge to common masses. Prof. Nisha Misra, a well-known mycologist succeeded Prof. Tripathi. Prof. Misra introduced research on fungi causing allergy in humans besides her other eminent contributions on fungal taxonomy. Thereafter, landmark progress of the Department was recorded during the Headship of Prof. PP Upadhyaya. It was during the tenure of Prof. Upadhyaya when the Department hosted the renowned Annual meet and Conference of the Indian Botanical Society (IBS) in October 2013. Prof Upadhyaya handed over the batten to Prof RP Shukla, who had a fruitful career in plant taxonomy and forest Ecology. He received appreciation letter for his research contribution related to Nobel Prize won by IPCC. Next Head of the Department was Prof. VN Pandey, who is recognised globally due to his work in the field of Nutraceuticals and ethnobotany. Prof. Pooja Singh, the next Head of the Department contributed a lot for the progress of the Department, particularly, her contribution for NAAC needs appreciation. The thrust area of Prof. Pooja Singh is post-harvest management of fruit crops. The current Head of the Department is Prof. Anil K Dwivedi, who is working on various aspects of environment has provided a new impetus to the Department. His leadership ability has inspired the faculty members in various aspects, as a result almost all the teachers of the Department have procured funds and grants for research. Also, many academic activities, such as conferences, Seminars and workshops are being conducted in the Department during his tenure. It is due to his efforts that the Alumni Association of the Department has been restructured as a regular and dynamic association.
Other legendary faculty members of our Department include Prof. DN Sharma, a Ph.D. from Manchester, a student of Prof. Wardlaw, the pioneer of Plant morphology, Prof. Malvika Srivastava, Prof. NN Tripathi, Prof. Yeshwant Singh, Prof. SN Gupta, Prof. AK Srivastava, Dr. Savita Ganguly a scholar of Prof. Birbal Sahani, Prof. Manjula Chatterjee, Dr. Mridula Mukherjee and many more. Some other renowned personalities, who have also served in our Department in a part of their career are Prof Bharat Rai, Prof. HD Kumar, Prof. Anil Tripathi and Prof. Bandana Bose there four legends later moved to BHU, Prof. RS Tripathi and Prof RR Mishra both later shifted to NEHU, Shillong, Prof. PK Gupta shifted to Meerut, Prof. UN Chatterjee shifted to Jodhpur, Shri NN Upadhyaya joined Administration as IAS and many more.
The Department has a sanctioned strength of 19 teachers. The Departmental Library has more than 5500 books, in addition to many journals and annual reviews. The Departmental Herbarium, consisting of more than 1700 herbarium specimens. It has plant repository and identification facilities.
The Botanical Garden: Spread in approximately 4 hectares consisting about 100 rare, endangered and medicinal plant species, with rich bamboosetum, glass house, green house and a pond for aquatic plants, Nakshatra vatika etc. The Garden has been awarded projects from BSI, NMDB (PI Dr Virendra Madhukar) for its upgradation and ventures of cultivation of important medicinal plants have been recently undertaken.
Main Areas of Research are Environmental Pollution, Forest Ecology, Neutraceuticals, Phycology, Plant Virology, Herbal Pesticides, Plant Physiology, Photosynthesis biology, Phytoplasma, plant biotechnology. Many project sponsored by ICAR, CSIR, UGC, CST, DST, DBT have been awarded to the department. the Department was awarded Centre for Excellence by UP Govt in 2020.