Home | Department of Plant Sciences

Undergraduate Programs

Plant Sciences offers three diverse majors that prepare students for a broad range of exciting post-graduate jobs or graduate school.

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Graduate Programs

Plant Sciences manages two graduate programs and is involved with eight campus graduate groups leading to Ph.D. and master's degrees.

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Research and Facilities

Our faculty works to advance, evaluate and communicate knowledge of plant sciences from lab to field, rangeland, forests, waterways and beyond.

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Outreach Programs

We partner with growers, ranchers, consumers and communities to understand regional and global needs and provide research-based solutions.

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Latest News

Close-up of cluster of red tomatoes on a bush

New video series cultivates California's vegetable growers

by Pam Kan-Rice
April 30, 2025

The first in a new series of videos has been posted to help educate the coming generation of workers and managers in California's vegetable industry. The project is led by Jeff Mitchell, of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.

A bird with a hooked beak perches on a log or something poking up from water, surrounded by tan grass.

California rice fields provide vital habitat for birds, fish, snakes

by Trina Kleist and Kat Kerlin
April 28, 2025

Biodiversity

Meetings begin in Sacramento this week on how farmers and conservationists can work together to protect critters that use the state's rice fields. Bruce Linquist, of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, represented the needs of farmers in the report being discussed.

Black-and-white image of a young man in a lab setting with a glass beaker, doing something with it.

Former pomology chair Durzan remembered for work in tree biochemistry

by the Durzan family
April 22, 2025

Dr. Donald J. Durzan was chair of the former UC Davis Department of Pomology from 1981 to 1985. He is remembered for groundbreaking research in conifer biochemistry and his contributions to the forestry industry, as well as to advances in fruit and nut crops.