Plants (7 Dec. 2009)

Flora has evolved to live in extreme conditions and a wide variety of locations and seen as the eldest 'creatures' on the planet. Their struggle for life, like animals (only usually much ... See full summary »

Director:

Martha Holmes

Writer:

Paul Spillenger

Stars:

David Attenborough, Mick Connaire, Neil Lucas

Cast

Episode credited cast:
David Attenborough	...	Himself - Narrator (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mick Connaire	...	Himself
Neil Lucas	...	Himself
Tim Shepherd	...	Himself
Oprah Winfrey	...	Herself - Narrator (U.S. Broadcast)

Storyline

Flora has evolved to live in extreme conditions and a wide variety of locations and seen as the eldest 'creatures' on the planet. Their struggle for life, like animals (only usually much slower), is about food (including parasitism and 'flesh-eating'). They strive to find water, to procreate: notably pollination-mostly by animals and semination - gliding or by weather conditions, or more primitive ways such as spores. They have a varied defense (thorns, spines, toxins etc.). Specific is the need for light, the fuel of photosynthesis, leading to a hierarchy of light-related levels, because not growing high enough in time can be lethal.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Release Date:

7 December 2009 (UK)

Company Credits

User Reviews

Fantastic Photography

Time-lapse and high-speed photography - a "must" for this topic - makes this episode one of the best in the series, if not the best. As narrator David Attenborough explains in here, you never appreciate how incredible plant growth is because it happens so slowly we can't see it. But when it's sped up many times, and you can see vines sprout up hundreds of feet on trees and flowers opening up, closeups predatory plants doing their thing, etc., the sights are simply amazing.

It doesn't take long in this episode to make us begin looking at plants almost like animals and all other living things on this planet. The lengths to which some plants, particularly trees, go to, to survive in brutal conditions, is incredible.f We see the oldest - Bristlecone Pines which were around 1.5 million years ago - and fastest-growing plant: bamboo.

We learn how important light is to plants and how plants can grow in the unlikeliest of places. We get some seriously-closeup photography of a predator plant: the Venus Fly Trap. We learn about the purpose of flowers on plants and how some exotic plants spread their seed.

I found this to be one of the most interesting "nature" shows I have ever watched.....just a fantastic episode in this great BBC series and magnificently-looking on Blu-Ray.