Useful Plants as Potential Flagship Species to Counteract Plant Blindness

“Plant blindness” describes the phenomenon that people overlook plants in everyday life, resulting in a constrained view on nature. It also leads to a low interest in plants, as has been shown by several studies on students’ interests. The present study suggests counteracting plant blindness by investigating students’ interest in plants more closely. The goal is to identify groups of plants that are interesting for students and that therefore can be used as potential “flagship species” in botany lessons. A questionnaire was developed to test students’ interest in useful plants, subdivided in five subgroups: medicinal plants, stimulant herbal drugs, spice plants, edible plants and ornamental plants. There were 1299 students aged between 10 and 19 years being investigated in order to explore their interest in useful plants. The data analysis shows (for all ages and both genders) that medicinal plants and stimulant herbal drugs trigger high interest, whereas spice plants, edible plants and ornamental plants raise less interest. Mean values, however, do not allow drawing conclusions on an individual level. In order to gain better insight into the interest patterns of individual students, we used a frequency analysis. Results show that stimulant herbal drugs polarise strongly, whereas medicinal plants are interesting for almost all students. Ornamental plants are interesting for especially a group of younger students. Based on the identified interest profiles, recommendations can be made which study objects from different subgroups of useful plants should be chosen as study objects in botany lessons in order to best address students’ interest.