Students in the United States like studying animals more than plants.

People tend not to pay attention to the plants in their surroundings.

These are only two factors contributing to a condition described as "plant blindness" in the botany and science education literature. In this episode, I speak with Dr. Elisabeth Schussler, one of the two botanists who coined the phrase in 1999. I also speak with Kathryn Parsley, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Memphis, whose specialty is botanical literacy. In a paper written for the journal "Plants People Planet," Kathryn makes a case for replacing the phrase "plant blindness" with Plant Awareness Disparity. Find out why formal and informal educators should consider doing the same.

LINKS

Links to Kathryn Parsley's websites and projects

Dr. Elisabeth Schussler, University of Tennessee

Article - Plant Awareness Disparity: A Case for Renaming Plant Blindness

Article - Preventing Plant Blindness

Botanical Society of America

American Society of Plant Biologists

Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary (Harris & Harris)

Ed Yong, Science Journalist

Besley Framework

Episode 47: Kathryn Parsley, Plant Blindness

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Producer: Tania Marien

Music: So Far So Close by Jahzzar is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike License; 

SOLO ACOUSTIC GUITAR by Jason Shaw is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License.

View The Freelance Project Portfolio to learn more about Independent environmental education professionals and how they strengthen environmental literacy.

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