The Day of the Triffids 1962 - Iain Stewart TV - Leon: The Professional 1994 - David Attenborough TV - David Suzuki - Weird or What? TV - Jim Thomas - David Bellamy - Terence McKenna - John Steinbeck - Miss Read - Jane Goodall - Percy Bysshe Shelley - Prince Charles - Jonathan Gray TV - Neil deGrasse Tyson TV - In Search of … TV - Mexico: Earth’s Festival of Life TV - The Magical World of Moss TV - Chris Packham TV - The Gentlemen 2024 - The Bank Manager's Wife TV -
Brought to Earth on a meteorite during the Day of the Triffids. The Day of the Triffids 1962 starring Howard Keel & Nicole Maurey & Janette Scott & Kieron Moore & Mervyn Johns & Ewan Roberts & Alison Leggatt & Geoffrey Matthews & Janina Faye et al, director Steve Sekely opening commentary
All of England appears to be infested with a strange new plant that can inflict a fatal sting. It is also rumoured that this plant can uproot itself and move about. If you are blind, stay indoors. ibid. radio announcer
There’s no sense in getting killed by a plant. ibid. geezer
All plants move. They don’t usually pull themselves out of the ground and chase you. ibid.
Another force has helped create the planet we live on – plants. Iain Stewart, How to Grow a Planet I: Life From Light, BBC 2012
Roots and the soil they created were unstoppable ... Plants create oxygen as a waste product ... Leaves were the answer to all plants’ breathing problems. ibid.
Plants and their ancestors have revolutionised our planet. ibid.
Evolution often comes up with our cleverest solutions during desperate times. And one group of plants, the grasses, turned this crisis into an opportunity. Iain Stewart, How to Grow a Planet III: The Challenger
Mathilda: You love your plant, don’t you?
Leon: It’s my best friend. Leon: The Professional 1994 starring Jean Reno & Gary Oldman & Natalie Portman & Danny Aiello & Michael Badalucco & Ellen Greene & Willi One Blood & Don Creech & Adam Busch et al, director Luc Besson
There are some four million different kinds of animal and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive. David Attenborough, Life on Earth I: The Infinite Variety, BBC 1979
These first plants were simple algae. David Attenborough, Life on Earth III: The First Forests
The biggest living organism of any kind is a conifer – the Giant Sequoia. ibid.
The most complicated mechanisms of all are those produced by orchids. David Attenborough, Life on Earth IV: The Swarming Hordes
Without the moth, the yucca would not be pollinated. ibid.
There’s another drawback to eating leaves – they’re not that very nutritious. David Attenborough, The Trials of Life III: Finding Food, BBC 1990
The greatest plunderer of leaves however are insects. ibid.
Eating plants poses more problems than one might think. ibid.
There is a surprising amount of life here … The colour comes from microscopic plants. David Attenborough, The Living Planet II: The Frozen World, BBC 1984
Like animals plants need food and water. But what sets them apart is their struggle for light. David Attenborough, Life e9: Plants, BBC 2009
The Venus Fly Trap ... An electrical impulse is triggered and the leaf snaps shut in just a fraction of a second. The tips lock together like prison bars. ibid.
80% of plant species on Earth have flowers. ibid.
Although the milkweed has paid a heavy price, in the end it used the Monarch [butterfly] to gets its way. ibid.
To ensure it gets pollinated Heliconia has made the hummingbird its prisoner. ibid.
Plants need to spread their seeds as far away as possible. ibid.
But there is one that has a design that enables it to travel greater distances than all the others. This is Alsomitra. Its football-sized pod is packed full with hundreds of extraordinary seeds: each is an almost aerodynamically perfect glider that can be supported by even the slightest breeze. ibid.
Of the forty million or so seeds a cactus produces in its lifetime the chances are that only one will develop into a plant that outlives its parent. ibid.
The dragon’s blood tree: the key to their success lies in their bizarre shape ... The mist condenses on the skyward pointed waxy leaves. The droplets run down to the centre of the trunk and down to its roots. ibid.
Plants can not only cope with being poisoned, parched and scorched but they also survive being frozen. ibid.
But the most successful type of flowering is one that makes up 20% of all plant life on the planet: grass. There are ten thousand different species. ibid.
Plants are in great danger. In fact in Britain it’s now estimated that one species in five of plants is now in danger of extinction, and that applies world-wide. David Attenborough, interview Brave New World with Stephen Hawking, Channel 4 2011
Plants of course live on a different time-scale. David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants: Travelling, BBC 1995
Some plants can move not just their flowers and their leaves, but they can travel from place to place. ibid.
The bird-cage plant lives in California. ibid.
Fungi: spores are in many ways similar to seeds. ibid.
Brazil nuts: only one animal has the equipment to open them – the Agouti. ibid.
Seedlings ... somehow they’ve got to get up into the canopy and sunshine. David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants: Growing
Leaves are the factories in which plants make their food. ibid.
The techniques employed by plants to defend themselves are very varied indeed. ibid.
Bracken: when they are young the leaves are packed with cyanide. ibid.
Venus’s fly-trap ... one or two hairs on its surface act as triggers. ibid.
Nepenthes Raja ... this one contains two or three pints of liquid. ibid.
California: the oldest living things on Earth – the bristlecone pines. ibid.
The most massive living thing on Earth – the Giant Sequoia. ibid.
Pollen grains: no bigger than specks of dust, they are astonishingly varied and complex in shape. David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants: Flowering
Grasses: these in Nepal are the biggest of all standing twenty feet tall. ibid.
Not only are prominent red flowers likely to be pollinated by birds but they're unlikely to have any scent. ibid.
A female wasp also pumps out an identifying perfume but the orchid does the same. And the result is irresistible. ibid.
Flies don't fly at night. ibid.
Sumatra: it only flowers once in a thousand days ... The biggest flower in the world ... Amorphophallus titanum. ibid.
Birches on the timescale of the wood have short lives ... The Oaks rule. David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants: The Social Struggle
The host tree’s fate is now sealed – for it is in the clutches of a strangler fig. ibid.
Fungi are neither plant nor animal. ibid.
Some fungi trap living animals. ibid.
The Great Barrier Reef ... they look like plants? Why? David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants: Living Together
Several different acacias use ants as defenders. ibid.
Lichens: and very successful organisms they are too – they come into their own in the harshest of conditions. ibid.
The mistletoe family has over a thousand species. ibid.
No part of the Earth is more hostile to life than the frozen wastes around the poles … And yet there are plants here. David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants: Surviving
Snowbells … they opened even before the blanket of snow above them had melted. ibid.