I care about the plant
I believe the answer is:
erica
'plant' is the definition.
The answer is an example.
'i care about' is the wordplay.
'about' indicates an anagram.
'i'+'care'='icare'
'icare' anagrammed gives 'ERICA'.
'the' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for erica that I've seen before include "Girl's name - heather" , "Plant genus of garden heather" , "Plant of the heath genus" , "Heather, for instance" , "Girl - heather" .)