The Department of Plant Morphology and Systematics has organized classes in botany under this name since 1972. A number of prominent professors have taught at the Department (Prof. Dr. Vilotije Blečić, Prof. Dr. Budislav Tatić and Prof. Dr. Branimir Petković), who were also heads of the Department at one time.

Professor Blečić was engaged in floristic research in Serbia and Montenegro, publishing a large number of papers in national scientific journals. Professor Tatić was engaged in research in the fields of phytocoenology, anatomy, taxonomy, phytogeography, as well as environmental protection. He participated in the creation of the major work "Flora of the SR of Serbia".

Professor Petković engaged in floristic, phytocoenological, anatomical and taxonomic research and, together with his collaborators, published several scientific papers.

Professor Petar Marin has initiated new research directions at the Department, such as phytochemistry, chemotaxonomy, and micromorphology. Together with his collaborators, he has published a large number of papers and achieved a very high citation rate. In addition to the aforementioned areas, his collaborators are engaged in molecular research and applied aspects of botany.

A great contribution to the teaching and scientific work of the Department was made by Professor Sonja Duletić-Lausevic, who left us prematurely in 2021. She achieved significant results in micromorphology, histology, histochemistry, as well as in the field of biological activity testing.

Professors from the Department were very productive in writing textbooks for the needs of students and pupils of primary and secondary schools.

The Department of Plant Morphology and Systematics organizes teaching at undergraduate, master's and doctoral academic studies at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade. In the implementation of basic and elective courses dealing with plant morphology and anatomy for the last ten years, Dr. Sonja Duletić-Laušević, full professor, Dr. Ana Džamić, associate professor and Dr. Slavica Grujić, assistant professor have participated. For basic and elective courses dealing with systematics and phylogeny, Dr. Petar Marin, full professor and long-time head of the Department, full professors Dr. Peđa Janaćković and Dr. Milan Veljić and Dr. Nemanja Rajčević, associate professor have been engaged. Lazar Žarković is engaged as an assistant, and Jasmina Gradojević as an expert teaching associate.

The department organizes one module at the master's academic studies (Botany) and two modules at the doctoral academic studies (Experimental and Applied Botany and Systematic Botany).

The Department employs eleven researchers engaged through the Ministry of Science program (senior research associates Dr. Ana Alimpić Aradski and Dr. Danka Bukvički; research associates Dr. Ivona Velicković, Dr. Milan Gavrilović, Dr. Tanja Dodoš, Dr. Ksenija Mileski, Dr. Jelica Novaković and Dr. Mariana Oalđe Pavlović; research associates, Smiljana Janković, Milica Miletić and Maja Radulović).

The department has established cooperation with several national and foreign scientific institutions through teaching, joint projects, and publications.

The Department's narrow scientific field is plant morphology, phytochemistry and systematics. Research at the Department is focused on plant taxa with the aim of examining them from a fundamental and applied aspect. Representatives of the Lamiaceae (species of the genera Clinopodium, Micromeria, Phlomis, Salvia, Satureja, Stachys, Thymus), Asteraceae (Ambrosia, Amphoricarpos, Artemisia, Aster, Centaurea, Gnaphalium, Leontopodium), Apiaceae (Angelica, Cachrys, Echinophora, Laserpitium, Peucedanum) and Rosaceae (Prunus, Pyrus, Rosa, Rubus) are being investigated, given the presence of numerous aromatic, medicinal, edible and spicy plants in these families. Species of the conifer genera Picea and Pinus (Pinaceae) and Juniperus (Cupressaceae) are also being studied. Part of the research is focused on the study of mosses (liverworts and true mosses). Traditional (anatomical and morphological) methods are used in research in order to find stable diagnostic taxonomic characters, as well as to link the structure and function of special secretory structures and the chemical composition of their products. In addition to traditional methods, modern (micromorphological, ultrastructural, molecular and phytochemical) research methods are used. A significant part of the research of the members of the Department is focused on the chemical analysis of plant metabolism products and the examination of their biological effects. In recent years, research has been conducted that also relates to ethnobotanical studies in Serbia and the Balkans, which has opened a new direction at the Department.