Programatically added attribute, set to 'show on product page' automatically. Woocommerce

Ive written a script to import products to a new install of Woocommerce.

The products have attributes set up in the admin. This bit of code adds the attributes on import.

update_post_meta($product_id, 'common_name', $product['common_name']);
wp_set_object_terms($product_id,  $product['flowering_period'], 'pa_flowering');
wp_set_object_terms($product_id, $product['native_plant'], 'pa_native');

However when I look at the product attribute in admin, the tick box for 'show on product page' is unticked.

Is there a way to set this as ticked using the above function? OR Does it matter if this is ticked or not, if I call the attribute in the template directly using something like get_the_term_list (although most of my attributes have a single term) will it show, or does having this box ticked overide it showing up?