The Department of Botany at the University of Karachi was established in 1953. The University at that time was located on Chand Bibi Road (Princess Street) near Civil Hospital Karachi. The University moved into its new premises on 18th January 1960 and the Department was initially located in 2 barracks. The new building of the Department of Botany, with laboratories, lecture rooms and an auditorium was later constructed at the University campus. The laboratories of the department are fairly well equipped.

Prof. Dr. Suraiya Khatoon

Currently there are 04 Professors, 01 Associate Professor, 10 Assistant Professors and 05 lecturers who are involved in teaching and research in six different sections of plant sciences i.e., Applied Botany, Mycology and Plant Pathology, Plant Physiology, Plant Ecology, Marine Botany and Plant Taxonomy. The department offers 70 different courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels to address the needs of the society in the field of agriculture, education, environment, horticulture, pharmacognosy, pharmacology etc. More than 76 students are presently involved in research studies leading to M.Phil./Ph.D. degrees. The Karachi University Botanical Herbarium has a collection of more than 150,000 plant specimens collected from different regions of Pakistan besides a large collection of species of algae and fungi. The departmental seminar library has a good collection of textbooks and research papers.

Members of the teaching staff have completed about 50 research projects with the support of the USDA, PARC, PSF, UGC, IFS, TWAS, PAEC, NSRDB, BOSTID, ACIAR, PCRWR, EEC, and NSF. Currently several research projects funded by ONR, European Economic Community, Pakistan Science Foundation, HEC, PARC, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and National Science Foundation, USA are in progress.

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