🌿 What is Plant Blindness?

• Coined by Wandersee & Schussler, it refers not to literal blindness, but to our failure to recognize, value, or differentiate plants in our lives: we see them, yet treat them like scenery pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+15nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com+15en.wikipedia.org+15.

• Since then, studies have shown people detect animals much more readily than plants—demonstrating this bias is baked into our brain’s visual processing bbc.co.uk+1edgehill.ac.uk+1.

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Why It's Surging (Not Really "Rising" – it's always been here, but modern factors amplify it)

1. Education Bias

   • Schools de-emphasize botany; biology curricula often sideline plants, favoring animals.

   • Botany degrees are dwindling while zoology rises ecos.org.uk+1reddit.com+1.

2. Urbanisation & Tech Overload

   • More city living and screen time (nature-deficit disorder) means we simply miss the greens around us grow.cals.wisc.edu+8bbc.co.uk+8reddit.com+8.

3. Cultural Zoo-centrism

   • Animals dominate media, mascots, mascots, and conservation campaigns.

   • Plants rarely get center stage in public consciousness reddit.com+14nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com+14en.wikipedia.org+14edgehill.ac.uk+4en.wikipedia.org+4reddit.com+4.

4. Scientific and Conservation Bias

   • Research and funding go for charismatic plants (flowers, tall species), neglecting “ugly” or shorter ones—even though two-fifths of all plant species face extinction newyorker.com+2wired.com+2nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com+2.