Para que servem os Jardins Botânicos

We think the central rationale for public understanding of plants may be found in the motto of London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: “All life depends on plants.”  This statement sets out the first of many reasons why we the people should know about plants.

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Findings from our own botany education research studies have shown us that, especially in urban areas,  the public only pays attention to and cares about the plants in their environment after a person or persons whom they respect help them to observe, identify, grow, interact with, and eventually, scientifically understand plants and their importance to human affairs as well as to the biosphere—and it’s best when such teaching takes place in personally meaningful and experiential ways. We’ve also hypothesized that the more botanically literate the public becomes, the greater its multifaceted interest in plants and the greater its support of botanic gardens, including plant science research. It is an astute conservation principle that the more we understand something, the more likely we are to value it and to want to preserve it.

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