Abstract
In Western society, plants are often overlooked in favour of more charismatic species. This inattention and de‐prioritisation can have the effect of hindering progress towards key Sustainable Development Goals and reducing action on the climate emergency. The education system is frequently implicated in causing this Plant Awareness Disparity (PAD), possibly through focusing too much on scientific approaches to biology rather than creating more holistic and emotive connections to the natural world. We describe a small‐scale intervention in which participants listened to three short podcasts focusing on the folklore of familiar UK plant species: holly, ivy and mistletoe. The Nature Connectedness Survey (NCS) was used along with additional questions to measure attitudinal changes that were interpreted as a proxy measure for changes in PAD. Significant, positive differences in NCS scores were found for all participants over the three‐week intervention period. Results demonstrate the power of simple, storytelling techniques to bring emotion and meaning to teaching about plants, and we advocate for their integration into learning at all levels.