In modern urban existence, the complex lives of plants are often reduced to simplistic categories, which resonate with human utility; as Jahren (2016) noted: “Human civilization has reduced the plant, a four‐hundred‐million‐year‐old life form, into three things: food, medicine and wood” (p. 279). These categories speak little of the contributions plants make to the ecological fabric of life on Earth; both on land and in the oceans. This editorial draws attention to the rich time assemblages in which plants exist and highlights the need for diverse representations with which to engage human attention to the botanical world.