Botany covers all aspects of the life of plants. It therefore includes their structure and development, physiology and biochemistry, health and disease, relationships with other organisms and the environment (ecology), as well as the traditional aspects of plant identification and classification.

The main emphasis at Otago is on the general biology, ecology and physiology of higher plants and marine algae, although other groups (conifers, ferns, mosses and fungi) are also included in the papers offered.