What is paleobotony and what significance does this field have to our understanding of plants?

Paleobotany is a branch of the paleontology and the paleobiology. Its main focus are the recovering and identification of the plant remains (the plant fossils) found into the geologic contexts.

The paleobotany is a very important branch as it is the one that gives us the answers about the emergence of the plants, their evolution and development over time. Also, it gives us answers how the plants from the past lived, what was the environment in which they existed, their needs, and how the plants influenced the environment around them.

the principles and empirical processes of discovery and demonstration considered characteristic of or necessary for scientific investigation, generally involving the observation of phenomena, the formulation of a hypothesis concerning the phenomena, experimentation to test the hypothesis, and development of a conclusion that confirms, rejects, or modifies the hypothesis.