ScienceDaily: Science & Society News

People are becoming 'disconnected from the botanical world' at a time when plants could help solve global environmental problems, warn a group of research scientists. They say the problem has been exacerbated by schools and universities reducing their teaching of basic plant science, including plant identification and ecology. They describe a self-accelerating cycle which risks '...the extinction of botanical education,' where biology is taught predominantly by people with research interests in animal science.