The Institute of Botany was established on July 1, 1959 after the reorganisation of the Institute of Biology of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, which functioned since September 15, 1945 and had two divisions: Systematic-experimental botany and Systematic-experimental zoology. In 1992 the Institute of Botany was reorganized into a state scientific institute as it is today. It performs fundamental and applied botanical research.

The Institute focuses on the following research fields:

1. Botanical diversity of Lithuania: identification and generalisation on the level of communities.
2. Genetic and physiological fundaments of plant productivity: research on the control possibilities of genetic and physiological processes determining growth and productivity.
3. Diversity of Lithuanian mycobiota: identification and generalisation on the species level; regularities of formation of microorganism communities.

The Institute, together with Vilnius University, was granted the right to doctoral studies. The Doctor's Degree is confered in the field of biomedical sciences (B 000) in the trend of botany (04 B) and in the branch of  microbiology, bacteriology, virology, mycology (B 230) of the biology (01 B) trend. The Institute has been granted the right to confer the degree of Habilitated Doctor of Biomedical Sciences in the trend of botany (04 B).