Plants in a primary school as a tool to preserve multicultural urban traditional knowledge

Plants connect heaven and earth, offer fruit, color, and well-being, and are vital to all living beings and the planet; plants are a silent braiding of life itself (Kimmerer, 2020). This study applies urban ethnobotany to examine how scientific knowledge and diverse cultural practices unite in urban contexts. This knowledge includes scientific knowledge, local family traditions, and the diverse plant-related practices of migrant communities (Pochettino et al., 2012; Hurrell & Pochettino, 2014; Ladio & Albuquerque, 2014). Data were collected in an Italian primary school using pedagogical documentation, semi-structured interviews with children and parents, and child-led interviews with their parents. The research aims to illustrate how children in urban environments, together with their parents, construct green memories (Buonanno & Weyland, 2024), fostering a critical awareness of the vital relationship between plants and humans and the importance of plants for planetary sustainability. The research aims to encourage children and parents to recognize plants as living beings, respect them, and understand that humans are part of the web of life (Capra, 2014).