Plantwatch: What is that wildflower? And why don't we know?

Few can identify our common plants amid a lack of education and more focus on animals and birds on natural history shows

How many people know our common wildflowers? The charity Plantlife commissioned a poll by YouGov two years ago to find out if people could identify wildflowers and discovered a shocking lack of knowledge. Most could not identify, or mis-identified, the common dog-violet, one of the most widespread wildflowers found in 97% of the UK, and only 6% of 16- to 24-year-olds correctly named it. There were similar results for red clover, another common wildflower. But most people said they would like to identify more wildflowers, although only about half of young people were so enthusiastic.

"There is definitely a lack of knowledge in the public about wild plants," said Trevor Dines at Plantlife. "We respond more to animals than plants and most television nature programmes focus on animals and birds." And he added that more education is needed. "We need botany on the national curriculum for schools, we want botany teaching modules."