Check out this zine about plants in Skyrim
Shel told me about this incredible zine by Liz Anna Kozik.
It starts off with a discussion about "plant literacy", or people's awareness of plant biodiversity. Then it moves on to a series of loving illustrations of all the plants in Skyrim. Liz has figured out the real-world analogues for all the plants in the game.
I was a massive fan of the plant collection and potion systems in Oblivion and Skyrim. In college, I would periodically challenge my friends to name a quest in Oblivion... I would then start a new character, run over to the quest, and try to do it using pretty much only potions. I also had a character with maxed out potionmaking skill and almost no other skills. I adored the plant collection mechanics and I had a dream of making my own game about potionmaking.
As I wrote about for castor beans, it's definitely true that a lot of people are blind to most of the plants around them - they don't play close attention to specific species or to distinctions more fine-grained than the difference between, say, a bush and a tree, or a flower and grass. It's very interesting how quickly people can learn to pay attention to plants if they need to, though. And I've definitely done that several times in videogames!