What does herbology do exactly?

[Durwinatica]

I have been working on herbology, and I've gotten it to ~30ish, but I haven't seen any differences compared to when I had zero skill in it. Is it supposed to make gathering faster? Please if someone could give a detailed answer, or at least more detailed than "it increases gathering speed", that would be great... like knowing at what level I would start to see a difference!

[Charlotte-ate-wilbur]

Both your skill and the quality of your tool will influence your harvest speed. Recently it's been changed that one must be lv 70-90 (Not sure if it stars at 70 or 80) to get special items such as maps and elements.

[Durwinatica]

Are there any other known benefits to raising Herblore besides for speed increase?

[Yridia Anar]

depends what you want to craft.
For Alchemy it is necessary, maybe even for cooking and brewing.

For speed increase is it more the *husbandry* skill

[Charlotte-ate-wilbur]

I have to clarify that the husbandry skill does not affect your speed in gathering herbs with a sickle.

Gathering speed is determined by your constitution, gathering skill, and tool quality. This only relates to the particular skill you are using, it's not like Ultima where one skill passively effects another (for example lumberjack does not increase your damage with axes)

I do not mean to correct or over explain, my intention is clarity