Never heard of such notation.

For me ≈1180 would mean that it's not exactly 1180.

But a better title would be something like “Over a thousand plant root system drawings”.

nobody adds the decimal digit to integers, though

1180 can be 4 significant digits if the count is precise

Nobody really uses 1.18k outside of math, engineering, and scientific contexts either.

A kagi or Google search for 1.18k in quotes returns this very HN thread and mostly a bunch of resistors, very few organic uses (some youtube videos about subscriber counts is all I see).

where did you go to high school?