Science and Nature

The Green Planet

Sir David Attenborough travels the globe to reveal the secret lives of plants. Using pioneering camera techniques, the series takes viewers on a magical journey inside the hidden world of plants, on which all animals — including humans — are dependent.

Human Worlds

55m 55s

Sir David Attenborough reveals how humans are helping plants, many of which face extinction. From projects in Africa to re-seeding the landscape to rebuilding a Brazilian rainforest tree by tree, everyone can work to make our world a little wilder.

Episodes

  • Human Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Human Worlds

    S1 E5 - 55m 55s

    Sir David Attenborough reveals how humans are helping plants, many of which face extinction. From projects in Africa to re-seeding the landscape to rebuilding a Brazilian rainforest tree by tree, everyone can work to make our world a little wilder.

  • Desert Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Desert Worlds

    S1 E4 - 55m 55s

    Sir David Attenborough explores the hostile world of the desert, where plants can spend decades waiting for rain or travel to find it. Survival tactics include using weapons, camouflage and forming surprising alliances with animals.

  • Seasonal Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Seasonal Worlds

    S1 E3 - 55m 55s

    Sir David Attenborough reveals the surprising and dramatic effects of the four seasons on plant life. In order to survive the huge challenges each season presents, plants must use strategy, deception and remarkable feats of engineering.

  • Water Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Water Worlds

    S1 E2 - 55m 55s

    Sir David Attenborough explores bizarre and beautiful water plants, which use nature's super-glue, counting, and killer spikes to get a leaf up. Some escape from animals by rolling away while others create bubbles in a magical river in Brazil.

  • Tropical Worlds: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Tropical Worlds

    S1 E1 - 55m 54s

    Sir David Attenborough takes a plants-eye view of life in a rainforest, a world of stunning beauty but also fierce competition. New film techniques allow us to enter their magical world as never before.

Extras + Features

  • Seeds that Literally Run Away: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Seeds that Literally Run Away

    S1 E5 - 2m 27s

    The seeds of wild oats have an incredible ability to find the right spot to grow...they walk! This ability was selected out of cultivated oats to make it easier to gather the seeds and grow new crops.

  • How Do You Pollinate 40 Million Almond Trees?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Do You Pollinate 40 Million Almond Trees?

    S1 E5 - 2m 33s

    Central California is the biggest orchard in the world and almonds are one of its main crops. There are 40 million trees here with 20,000 flowers each, meaning there are billions of flowers in this one location. But there are no pollinators for the job, they were wiped out when the surrounding environment was cleared. So 40 billion bees are trucked in from across the U.S. when the trees bloom.

  • One Sharpshooter Way to Stop an Invasive Plant: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    One Sharpshooter Way to Stop an Invasive Plant

    S1 E5 - 2m 20s

    Miconia, a plant native to Mexico, grows taller than native Hawaiian plants. A single plant can produce 10 million seeds a year, proliferating rapidly. Unable to land their helicopters, marksmen shoot Miconia plants at the stem with paintballs filled with herbicide while flying. Killing the whole plant without damaging any wild plants.

  • How Saguaro Cacti Store 1000 Gallons of Water: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Saguaro Cacti Store 1000 Gallons of Water

    S1 E4 - 2m 9s

    The saguaro features a pleated surface which allows it to expand to contain all the water it needs: it can hold over a thousand gallons. During dry times, it can pull from this source to grow and produce flowers and seeds. When fully loaded, the cactus won't need to absorb water for an entire year.

  • Why Elephants Eat the Baobab Tree: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Why Elephants Eat the Baobab Tree

    S1 E4 - 2m 38s

    The elephant has a special relationship with the baobab, eating its fruit and spreading its seeds. The elephant also uses this tree as a key water source during migration, using it's water-rich inner wood to quench their thirst on long migrations. This damages the baobab, but it normally regenerates. Global warming has disrupted this cycle.

  • The Plant that Makes Its Home on a Cactus: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Plant that Makes Its Home on a Cactus

    S1 E4 - 3m 16s

    Tristerix seeds travel in bird droppings, when they land on a cactus they grow long probe-like stems, that latch onto the cactus body and inject it with parasitic threads. A year later Tristerix bursts out of the cactus skin as a bloom of beautiful flowers that attract hummingbird pollinators.

  • The Orchid that Pretends It's A Wasp: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Orchid that Pretends It's A Wasp

    S1 E3 - 3m 38s

    The Hammer Orchid does not look like a flower and has no nectar but also needs to attract a pollinator. This plant's strategy is to synchronize with the mating season of the thynnid wasp, attracting males by emitting a similar scent to that of the female. And since the orchid looks similar to the female, the male it attempts to mate with it.

  • The Fungi that Help Trees Talk: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Fungi that Help Trees Talk

    S1 E3 - 2m 57s

    Fungi is able to link a whole group of trees through their root systems, creating a 'wood wide web' called the Mycorrhizal Network. Using this network, trees are able to pass nutrients, chemical and electrical signals to each other raising the alarm when being attacked.

  • How the Giant Water Lily Dominates: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How the Giant Water Lily Dominates

    S1 E2 - 2m 22s

    The Giant Water Lily expands by over 6 inches a day, and reaches over 6 feet across as it expands to take up as much sunlight as it can.

  • How Venus Flytraps Count: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Venus Flytraps Count

    S1 E2 - 2m 50s

    Venus Flytraps use both hairpin triggers and counting to make sure they're catching prey worth eating.

  • What Photosynthesis Looks Like Underwater: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    What Photosynthesis Looks Like Underwater

    S1 E2 - 2m 17s

    When plants photosynthesize underwater, they release oxygen as little air bubbles that float to the surface. Where the plants are dense, it can create sea of fizzing bubbles.

  • How Leaf Cutter Ants Feed a Killer Fungus: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Leaf Cutter Ants Feed a Killer Fungus

    S1 E1 - 3m 44s

    Leaf Cutter ants deliver thousands of pieces of plant matter to a fungus underground in order to grow food. See how plants fight back - with chemical warfare

Schedule

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