Far from some previous depictions of plants being the dull part of school biology lessons, we now see Tim Peake’s space mission appealing to thousands of schoolchildren to grow rocket seeds that have travelled in space (https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/blogs/news-blog/January-2016/seeds-in-space).
Can an interest in plant biology lead to career opportunities? Almost certainly is the answer, but the real answer is we can’t be sure of all the careers the knowledge could be applied to and don’t even know the names of some future jobs. A friend of my daughter’s is now a YouTube Executive and doing well in the communications industry. You can be sure that 10 years ago aged 13, this was not her career aspiration.
So let’s not constrain our thinking when giving career guidance about plants. Just know they are relevant, can be fascinating and if they’re not ignored at school, they might just lead to a job opportunity.