Q.Make a list of algae and fungi that have commercial value as source of food, chemicals, medicines and fodder.

Economic botany is simply the study of how plants are useful to people — the foods, fuels, medicines and industrial materials we draw from them. It is an everyday idea: think of how much of your day, from the sugar in your tea to the wood in your furniture, traces back to some plant. In the plant kingdom, almost every group turns out to earn its keep in this way, and listing those uses is a good habit because it makes an abstract group of organisms suddenly concrete and memorable.

Running through the major groups, the practical value shows up again and again: …