Herbarium with Poetry: How to Connect People and Plants

Humanity might be in the midst of an epidemic of plant blindness (Parsley 2020; Jose et al. 2019; Krosnick et al. 2018). Plant blindness refers to the tendency of humans to perceive plants as one indistinguishable green background without differentiating any species or attributing any importance to plants. Yet, our food security depends on plants (Sõukand et al. 2021) and, even more, on our knowledge of how to use plants. To retain the knowledge accumulated through the generations, an urgent increase in interest in plants is needed. The method proposed here is based on our “Herbarium and Poetry workshop,” which took place in Venice (Italy) during the ONA Short Film Festival (2021). This method merges biodiversity learning and creative writing: in the first stage, participants take part in collecting and displaying dried herbarium specimens; second, they custom their sample by writing a “Little Elfje,” a short poem of 11 words that aims to describe their feeling for the natural elements. This practice was applied during an outdoor nature and adventure film festival, but it can be easily adapted to diverse purposes, including research, awareness raising, and connection to the local environment.