I disagree with Isabel Marques' frightening suggestion that botanical education should be 'modernized' by moving away from the study of specimens towards a more molecular approach (Nature 520, 295; 2015). Classical botanical disciplines such as systematics and taxonomy fail to attract students not because they lack molecular allure, but because of the time-consuming focus they demand.

In any case, many botany students at universities worldwide are also trained in molecular biology, as at my institute, the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and at the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, for instance. Even 'old-fashioned' studies in the field of plant systematics rarely get published without molecular data, and these often include genomic data.

Drawing botanical education away from the plant itself risks creating 'experts' who cannot reliably differentiate species. Marques' call for outreach to help the public to identify common plants would then not stand a chance.