Herb show 2025

On May 11, 2025, the "Krautschau" campaign took place for the first time in the pilgrimage town of Kevelaer in cooperation with the NABU Nature Conservation Center Gelderland. The aim of this nationwide initiative was to put the spotlight on wild flowering plants on roadsides, in pavement cracks and wall gaps.

In cities, plants play a major role in mitigating the effects of climate change. This not only applies to trees and parks. The sometimes tiny, tough greenery that grows almost everywhere between paving stones and cracks in walls also absorbs surface water, increases infiltration and binds dust.

In addition, wild plants in the city are of great importance to the urban ecosystem, providing shelter and food for other organisms such as wild bees and beetles. In Germany, over 500 species have adapted to extreme conditions by withstanding foot and vehicle traffic, heat, drought, soil compaction and pollution.

The #Krautschau campaign week, coordinated by Julia Krohmer(Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt am Main) together with Alexandra-Maria Klein (University of Freiburg), took place nationwide for the 5th time and aimed to raise awareness of the often overlooked wild plants in the city. In groups or individually, with or without guidance, participants searched for green plants on sidewalks and in cracks in walls in the city, marked and photographed them with colored chalk and shared the pictures on social networks. Plant identification apps were also able to help laypeople identify plants and reward active collectors with badges. The collected data could also be scientifically analyzed, e.g. frequency, distribution and temporal development of certain plant species. The campaign spread from France via England to Germany, where the hashtag #Krautschau became established on social media.

At our "herb show", the speaker, Ms. Osche from NABU, took us on a 90-minute search for the green rebels in the city from 2 p.m. at the meeting point. Using colorful chalk, we gave the often overlooked plant diversity the attention it deserved.

We would like to thank everyone who attended and are already looking forward to the next herb show in 2026.