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

Young people wearing yellow hard hats. Some have their hands in a metal bin holding cacao seeds

From Colombia to Davis: Cacao project cultivates student exchange

by Nyah Mallak
July 16, 2024

UC Davis and Universidad de La Salle students collaborated on a cacao project, fostering agricultural innovation and cultural exchange. A second project will focus on climate-smart cacao production and agroecology to strengthen Colombia’s food systems.

Outdoors. People chatting with each other in the background. Low green plants in rows in the foreground. Bright sunny day.

Scientists dig into strawberry, tomato diseases

by Marta Bjornson
July 15, 2024

Advances in breeding and postharvest handling in strawberries and tomatoes, aimed at reducing the costs of disease in the field and in postharvest, were on display at the recent Strawberry Disease Field Day, hosted by the UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Program.

We see strips of dry, brown in the middle of green, white-flowered plants. People are bent over, touching the dry area.

Herbicide drift, native plants, irrigation water, weed zappers

by Trina Kleist
July 11, 2024

California farmers spend over $900M annually on weed control. At UC Davis Weed Day 2024, researchers shared updates on herbicide drift, native plants for weed control, irrigation impacts, and new weed-zapping technology for organic orchards.