Unbelievably there are trees standing out in the sands totally unsheltered. ibid.
Many plants take refuge under the ground in the hottest parts of the year. ibid.
The giant Amazon water lily: its gigantic leaves are armoured with spines. ibid.
I’m exploring the fascinating world of plants from the most bizarre to the most beautiful. David Attenborough’s Kingdom of Plants I, BBC 2012
One unique place – a microcosm of the whole planet world – the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. ibid.
Plants flourish most dramatically in places where there is a lot of warmth and a lot of water: the Wet Zone. ibid.
Kew has built a rainforest here on the banks of the Thames. ibid.
Bamboos: the fastest growing of all plants. ibid.
Some species can hold up to fifty litres of liquid. ibid.
Bromeliads and the frogs that live in them are only one example of the complex relationships that abound in the rain forests. ibid.
Plants and insects evolved together, driving their mutual diversity. ibid.
There are an estimated 25,000 species of orchid. ibid.
Plants may seem passive and inactive but in fact they move. David Attenborough’s Kingdom of Plants II: Solving the Secrets
How they detect the insects’ presence we still don’t know. ibid.
Leaves in winter can be a liability. ibid.
Human nostrils can only detect about 5% of them; insects do very much better. ibid.
Insects can smell a flower from as much as a mile away. ibid.
The rich foliage provides hidden habitats for whole communities of tiny insect herbivores and their predators. For many, leaves are food. ibid.
Fungi can’t photosynthesis because unlike plants they have no chlorophyll. ibid.
Most of the body of the fungus is beneath the ground, a tangle of tiny threads. ibid.
Fungi: technically speaking it is the largest known living organism on the planet. ibid.
Most fungi make a living by feeding on the dead tissues of other organisms, both plant and animal. ibid.
Fungi are essential links in the cycle of life. ibid.
Other flowers that smell of carrion also produce heat. ibid.
Some plants have developed some truly extraordinary strategies to enable them to survive in the driest of places. David Attenborough’s Kingdom of Plants III
This ability to wait for the right conditions is the trump card that enables many plants to survive in the dry zone. ibid.
If the temperature rises to 32 degrees Centigrade those substances in the clefts of the Cistus plant from the Mediterranean can spontaneously burst into flame ... From the ashes a new generation of Cistus quickly rises. ibid.
The seeds of orchids are minuscule. ibid.
The Kew Millennium Seed Bank ... Seeds gathered from plants all over the world. ibid.
There are an estimated 400,000 different species of plants on the planet. ibid.
They are indeed the very basis of all life on Earth. ibid.
We think of plants as passive still and silent … They have surprising abilities … Charles Darwin was fascinated by the Venus Flytrap. Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities s2e6: Shocking Senses, Eden 2013
Some plants like animals can actively catch their prey. ibid.
This is a resurrection plant ... dead limbs absorb water and unfurl in a matter of minutes. David Attenborough, Africa: Sahara, BBC 2013
The biggest living thing that exists on this planet is a plant like this Giant Sequoia tree in California. Plants whether they are enormous like this one or microscopic are the basis of all life including ourselves. We depend upon them for every mouthful we eat and every lungful of air we breathe. David Attenborough, The Green Planet I: Tropical Worlds, BBC 2022
Rainforests only cover a small proportion of the Earth’s surface yet they contain over half of all known species of plants and animals. ibid.
The branches of the great trees carry rich flourishing sky gardens. ibid.
Corpse flower: It might be mistaken for a dead animal … A metre across, it’s the world’s biggest flower. This one is a male. From its centre comes the pungent odour of death. ibid.
Today, 70% of all the world’s rainforests grow within a mile of a road or a clearing that we have cut into the forest. And this is creating new battlefields in the tropical world. ibid.
Plants cover much of the land surface of our planet but there is another extraordinary green world that is often hidden from us. It’s one where plants have overcome huge challenges in order to survive. The world of fresh water. David Attenborough, The Green Planet II: Water Worlds
Life in fresh water presents plants with huge problems. To succeed plants have had to abandon many of the adaptations that served them so well on land and evolve something quite new. And in doing that they have created some of the most beautiful and bizarre and important habitats on Earth. ibid.
This is the Boreal Forest: the largest forest on Earth. 750 billion trees. Smothered by snow throughout the winter. This is the northernmost boundary of an extraordinary world … A very different world dominated by relentless change. David Attenborough, The Green Planet III: Seasonal Worlds
Many of them have developed special strategies in order to meet the demands of this seasonal world. To succeed they must get their timing just right. ibid.
A constantly shifting landscape of sand. Temperatures that swing from minus 20 to more than 40 degrees Centigrade. And critically, almost entirely without rain. Yet, here on the dunes, a Euphrates poplar tree. And it’s not alone. Some of these trees have lived here for a thousand years. David Attenborough, The Green Planet IV: Desert Worlds
In every desert across the planet plants have found ways to not only survive but flourish. ibid.
Cacti have developed extraordinary adaptations that enable them to not only collect water but to retain it. ibid.
Planting native species in our gardens and communities is increasingly important, because indigenous insects, birds and wildlife rely on them. Over thousands, and sometimes millions, of years they have co-evolved to live in local climate and soil conditions. David Suzuki
Of all the different organisms on our planet common sense dictates that humans are the most advanced, capable of thought, reasoning and emotions. But do plants possess these abilities as well? New evidence suggests they might. And even more mysterious they may have the power of ESP. Weird or What? s2e7: Chinese Columbus, Discovery 2010
Before the plant was cut a huge spike appeared on the polygraph. ibid.
Synthetic biology is a progress trap par excellence ... A massive corporate grab on plant life. Jim Thomas, The New Biomasters
I am appalled by how much ragwort is on roadside verges; I thought it had to be controlled. David Bellamy
We can begin the restructuring of thought by declaring legitimate what we have denied for so long. Lets us declare Nature to be legitimate. The notion of illegal plants is obnoxious and ridiculous in the first place. Terence McKenna, Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge
I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer – and what trees and seasons smelled like – how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich. John Steinbeck, East of Eden