Curing Plant Blindness, an Insight into our Environment

Plant blindness, an inability to see or notice plants in one's environment. This deficit in plant recognition was first coined in 1998 by American botanists, James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler. Despite making up about 80% of the biomass on Earth, forces such as our increasing time spent behind screens and urbanization have continued to push this trend. People are often overlooking plants as living organisms, alongside animals, leading to an underappreciation of plants. They're underrepresented in education, even in bio-heavy majors, and limit the future interest in the plant sciences and conservation efforts.

Why should we care about plants? They're an important connection to the environment and provide people with our basics needs and numerous ecosystem services. They provide the oxygen that we breath, act as sources of natural products to household products and medicines that we use, and give us nutrition. The bread and cereal we consume daily are made from grains, which are seeds of grasses, such as wheat, rice, and corn. The meat we consume comes from animals that also consume plants, or feed on animals that eat plants. Plants are interconnected with humans, whether we realize it or not, it's just a matter of perspective. If you're interested in animal biology and ecology, learning about plants can give you a more holistic perspective of how ecosystems function and why animals have evolved into what they are today. If you're interested in culture, there's a whole field, called ethnobotany, dedicated to the interrelationship between people and how they utilize indigenous plants.

I used my personal Instagram to document the biodiversity of plants found on Eckerd's campus. Initially, I was going to create a blog focusing on plants, but I decided against it for a few reasons: 

1. Time constraints.
2. I would have a larger audience on Instagram.
3. I wanted to create bite-sized media that was easy to read and engage with
4. I wanted to appeal to Eckerd students and focus on the plants around campus.

The Stories feature, a form of spreadable media, are easy to read and share with other people. All it takes are a few clicks to engage with the content and to share with your own community. By bearing witness to the plants on campus, I could show my primary audience the diversity found in the area they spend the most time in. Additionally, I've had a few instances where I posted similar content on my story and was met with positive feedback. I highlighted specific areas of campus to show people that plants could be found anywhere, from the parking lot they park their cars in, to the beach they relax at and use for field studies. Each photo included common name, scientific name, and a fact about the species. These included ecological, ethnobotanical uses, edibility, and other types of facts.

Overall, I had lot of engagement on my stories from day to day. These included likes, shares, and even various comments. People had clarifying questions about the content I was publishing, which I could easily respond to. A recent graduate praised the series and wished that they'd spent more time looking at the diversity of plants on campus. Some people in my audience even sent me pictures of plants they'd seen on their walk to class, which I had featured in the series. I found that using social media was a great way to practice hypermediacy, as I was easily able to create photos and text to educate my audience, that could be easily shared with others. Furthermore, I created a Highlight Reel on my Instagram page so it could be viewed by people in the future.

Steps You Can Take to Overcome Plant Blindness: 

1. Take a stroll. Plants are everywhere! Take 15 minutes to go on a walk and stop to look at the plants. Look above, in front, and below you. Oftentimes, there's plants hiding in plain sight, we just have to take a minute to notice what's right in front us. 
2. Look outside your window. Take a break from studying and look outside your window. Notice the different shapes and colors of the plants right outside your window. Observe the wildlife and take note of the plant it's using to perch or hunt on. 
3. Take a plant class. Some of the plant-related classes I've taken at Eckerd include: Plants and Civilization, Field Botany, and Marine & Freshwater Botany. Other classes include Plant Biology and Restoration Ecology. 
4. Take pictures. Notice a plant that's piqued your interest? Take a picture. You can look back on the unusual plants that you didn't notice before. 
5. Download identification apps. Don't know what plant is and don't know how to identify it? There are many Citizen Science apps out there, such as iNaturalist, that can help you identify plants. These apps give suggestions on the ID that can point you in the right direction. You could even post them and members of these communities can help you get the correct ID. 
6. Follow accounts on social media. Plant biodiversity is astounding. There are whole social media accounts dedicated to documenting and educating people on plants most people will never get to see in their daily lives. Some of the accounts I follow on Instagram: @eckerdgardenclub, @epicgardening, @plantdaddypodcast, @crime_pays_but_botany_doesnt, @sheriff_woody_pct, @allan_the_entomologist, @plantwithroos 

References:

1. Ro, C. (2019, April 28). Why 'plant blindness' matters-and what you can do about it. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190425-plant-blindness-what-we-lose-with-nature-deficit-disorder
2. Jose, S. B., Wu, C., & Kamoun S. (2019). Overcoming plant blindness in science, education, and society. Plants, People, Planet, 1(3), 169-172. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.51.