The term was coined in 1999 by botanists James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler. Causes of Plant Blindness Two main avenues through which Plant Blindness has arisen have been suggested: human nature, and culture. Human Nature The first, human nature, encompasses the idea that human brain chemistry and visual processing systems are inherently biased to ignore plants in the environment. Studies have shown that human visual systems can not effectively process all the information that is seen. Thus, research suggests that priority is given to variable colors, movement, and familiar objects in order to most effectively detect threats and potential food sources. As plants do not often fit this criteria, many scientists think the human brain tends not to fully process their visual presence. Additionally, primates have been shown to have a preference for organisms that behave similarly to their own species. As plants behave very differently than humans, this also suggests that there is an intrinsic component to plant blindness. Potential Effects of Plant Blindness Several concerns exist regarding the potential effects of plant blindness. Most notably, plant blindness may lead to less funding being available for plant conservation efforts. Plants make up 57\% of the endangered species list, while only 3.86\% of funding for endangered species is allotted to them. Efforts to Combat Plant Blindness Several methods have been proposed to combat plant blindness and efforts are on-going. The most prominent campaign addressing this issue is called Prevent Plant Blindness and was created by Wandersee and Schussler, the researchers who coined this term. This campaign uses three main types of advocacy: a classroom poster which has been distributed to 20,000 teachers and endorsed by the Botanical Society of America, a children’s mystery picture book about a plant, entitled Lost Plant!, and promotion of plant-growing education, including school-gardens. Controversy Around the Term Some disagree with the use of this term, asserting that human bias against groups of species extends to all organisms without backbones and human-like eyes. Much of the biodiversity on Earth is found in insects, such as beetles, yet few insects are represented in biology education and in media. Thus, some argue that this phenomenon is more accurately the tendency of humans to ignore everything except vertebrates, not just plants.
 Causes Two main avenues through which Plant Blindness has arisen have been suggested: human nature, and culture. Human nature The first, human nature, encompasses the idea that human brain chemistry and visual processing systems are inherently biased to ignore plants in the environment. Studies have shown that human visual systems can not effectively process all the information that is seen. Thus, research suggests that priority is given to variable colors, movement, and familiar objects in order to most effectively detect threats and potential food sources. As plants do not often fit this criteria, many scientists think the human brain tends not to fully process their visual presence. Additionally, primates have been shown to have a preference for organisms that behave similarly to their own species. As plants behave very differently than humans, this also suggests that there is an intrinsic component to plant blindness. Potential effects Several concerns exist regarding the potential effects of plant blindness. Most notably, plant blindness may lead to less funding being available for plant conservation efforts. Plants make up 57\% of the endangered species list, while only 3.86\% of funding for endangered species is allotted to them. Efforts to combat plant blindness Several methods have been proposed to combat plant blindness and efforts are on-going. The most prominent campaign addressing this issue is called Prevent Plant Blindness and was created by Wandersee and Schussler, the researchers who coined this term. This campaign uses three main types of advocacy: a classroom poster which has been distributed to 20,000 teachers and endorsed by the Botanical Society of America, a children’s mystery picture book about a plant, entitled Lost Plant!, and promotion of plant-growing education, including school-gardens. Disagreement about the term Some disagree with the use of this term, asserting that human bias against groups of species extends to all organisms without backbones and human-like eyes. Much of the biodiversity on Earth is found in insects, such as beetles, yet few insects are represented in biology education and in media. Thus, some argue that this phenomenon is more accurately the tendency of humans to ignore everything except vertebrates, not just plants.
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The term was coined in 1999 by botanists James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler.
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Causes of Plant Blindness
Causes
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Nature
nature
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Effects of Plant Blindness
effects
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Combat Plant Blindness
combat plant blindness
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Controversy Around the Term
Disagreement about the term