Humans and Ornamental Plants: A Mutualism?

Humans Share More Preferences for Floral Phenotypes With Pollinators Than With Pests

“…Much more recent is the selection of plants exerted by humans, present for just a few millenia (8.000–10.000years; Milla et al, 2015 ). In the case of ornamental plants and humans, this interaction has been proposed to be mutualistic ( Wilson et al, 2016 ). At least in the context of these experiments, humans exert positive selection since they choose the flowers that they would prefer to grow.…”

Incorporating human behaviors into theories of urban community assembly and species coexistence

“…Using plants as an easily conceptualized example, it is clear that human behaviors are important. Plants have probably been cultivated in cities since urbanization first began (Kelcey and Müller 2009, Wilson et al 2016). Today, horticultural cultivars undergo artificial selection for traits that facilitate urban human–environment relationships such as aesthetics, food production, ease of maintenance, floral abundance and longevity, and physiological tolerance of urban environmental conditions, e.g.…”

“…Today, horticultural cultivars undergo artificial selection for traits that facilitate urban human–environment relationships such as aesthetics, food production, ease of maintenance, floral abundance and longevity, and physiological tolerance of urban environmental conditions, e.g. compacted soils and the presence of pollutants (Gessert 1993, Wilson et al 2016). These interactions, along with a complex suite of economic and social drivers, structure the cultivated species pool that is commercially available in a given location (Pincetl et al 2013).…”

Led up the garden path? Weeds, conservation rhetoric, and environmental management

“…Weeding brought children close to nature, and encouraged them to grow up as moral citizens (Robin 2001). In the twenty-first century era where new ideas about 'biophilia' shape educational endeavour, proximity to the earth is still touted as important for the psychological development of both children and adults in a world now considered 'nature-deficient' (Louv 2005;Wilson et al 2016).…”

“…This article arises from a collective project bringing together perspectives from the humanities and the sciences to explore the culture of weeds, and individual projects examining the floristics of gardens and nearby 'bush' on a fine scale (Robin et al 2011;Wilson et al 2016), while others deal with international developments in the idea of biodiversity (Robin 2011;Wilson et al In press). Together this has given us a range of scales and perspectives from which to critically examine the rhetoric surrounding garden plants as environmental weeds in Australia.…”