Plant, Nature & Eco Karma Glossary — Belvoir Terms ExplainedGlossary.

Plain-language definitions of the ideas behind Belvoir and the wider movement to bring nature back into cities. Skim the list, or link straight to a term.

Eco karma

Eco karma is an in-app Belvoir reward balance associated with eligible plant scans and community activity. Availability, eligibility rules, balances, and possible uses are controlled by the current app experience and may change as the reward system develops.

Botanist coach

The botanist coach is Belvoir's AI care assistant, available on eligible paid plans. It uses plant and environmental context to discuss watering, light, soil, symptoms, and ongoing care. Its output is automated guidance, not a professional diagnosis.

AI plant scanner

An AI plant scanner analyzes a plant photo and returns a likely species match with supporting details and a confidence score. Belvoir sends submitted scan data to AI services for processing; results should be verified when accuracy or safety matters.

Confidence score

A confidence score indicates how strongly an identification model supports its top match; it is not a guarantee of accuracy. Even a high score should be verified before any edible, toxic, medicinal, pet-safety, or treatment decision.

Citizen science

Citizen science is scientific research conducted partly or wholly by non-professionals. In nature apps, everyday users contribute observations — like plant sightings — that, in aggregate, become usable ecological data for researchers and conservationists.

Urban heat island

The urban heat island effect is the tendency of dense cities to be hotter and drier than surrounding areas, because concrete and asphalt absorb heat while a lack of vegetation removes natural cooling. Adding and maintaining greenery is the cheapest known mitigation.

Transpiration

Transpiration is the process by which plants release water vapor through their leaves. It raises local humidity and lowers ambient temperature in a plant's immediate radius — the mechanism behind vegetation's cooling effect in cities.

Collective impact radius

Collective impact radius is Belvoir's term for the idea that every cared-for plant has a small physical zone of benefit — cooler, more humid, more biodiverse. Individually negligible, these zones overlap into continuous coverage when a network of plants is maintained at scale.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variety of living species in a given area. Higher urban biodiversity is linked to healthier ecosystems, better pollination, and greater resilience to environmental stress — and is the outcome Belvoir's community tools aim to measure and improve.

Interactive nature map

Belvoir's interactive nature map is a community observation network that shows where plants have been identified, adopted, and cared for. It makes neglected green spaces visible so the community can respond, and turns scattered observations into a shared picture of local environmental health.