Tracing change in the public perception of plants: insights from archives and social media in China

Societal Impact Statement As urbanization accelerates, historic gardens serve as vital cultural treasures that offer spiritual and cultural support to the public. This study proposes an innovative approach that merges historical records from the Qing Dynasty with contemporary social media data to explore changes in public perceptions of these gardens. By analyzing shifts in plant awareness, heritage managers can develop strategies that both attract visitors and provide immersive educational experiences. This research fosters a deeper understanding of the rich cultural narratives behind historic garden plants, ensuring their relevance and vibrancy in today's value system while highlighting their enduring cultural significance. Summary Plants in historic gardens embody historical, cultural, and aesthetic values that evolve with shifting garden functions and societal meanings. Balancing plant heritage with contemporary needs represents an urgent conservation challenge. This study investigates temporal shifts in public perception of plant collections using Beijing's 14 historic gardens as a case study. The Qing Dynasty corpus is compared with the contemporary social media corpus. Results reveal substantial taxonomic turnover: only 29.0% of taxa persist as shared taxa, with aquatic plants declining 15.3%. Contemporary discourse prioritises introduced plants with ornamental appeal, whereas those with traditional cultural symbolism exhibit declining perceptual prominence. Our data reveal distinct patterns in plant perception dynamics relating to garden function, for example those we refer to as ‘culturally balanced’ (representing taxonomic diversity and culture), ‘prominence‐concentrated’ (focused on fewer, iconic specimens), or ‘taxonomically diverse’. Our analysis of data spanning two centuries provides evidence‐based guidance for balancing the changing needs of gardens in an uncertain future.