BBC Radio Podcasts from Plants: From Roots to Riches
Episode 5
Final omnibus edition of Prof Kathy Willis's history of our relationship with plants.
Episode 4
Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
Episode 3
Prof Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
Episode 2
Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
Episode 1
Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
The Great Providers
Kathy Willis examines how we are building future resilience into our modern crops.
Green and Pleasant Lands
Kathy Willis examines the importance of green landscapes, parks and gardens.
Capture and Drawdown
Kathy Willis examines new insights into plants as regulators of our planet.
Dynamic Rainforest
How DNA analysis is providing a new window into the evolution of the tropical rainforest.
A Blooming Tree of Life
Kathy Willis explores DNA fingerprinting and a new tree of life for plants.
A Useful Weed
Kathy Willis explores the legacy behind the mapping of the first plant genome.
Capsules of Life
Kathy Willis uncovers the role seedbanking plays in conserving worldwide plant diversity.
An Ill Wind
Kathy Willis explores the arboreal benefits that emerged from the great storm of 1987.
Unlocking Biodiversity
Kathy Willis describes the tools that are proving essential to map the world's flora.
Signals of Growth
Uncovering the elusive ways plants move and respond to their surroundings.
Botanical Medicine
Kathy Willis on how new opportunities opened up for finding medicines from plants.
Hunt for Diversity
Kathy Willis explores Nikolai Vavilov's pioneering search for unused varieties of crops.
Battling Bark and Beetle
Kathy Willis examines the origin and impact of Dutch elm disease across Europe.
Multiple Genes
Kathy Willis examines the mystery of a plant's ability to exist in multiple forms.
Towards the Light
Kathy Willis explores the harnessing of plants' ability to photosynthesise their own food.
Patterns from Crossed Peas
Kathy Willis on how Mendel's famous pea experiments helped to revolutionise horticulture.
Plant Invaders
Kathy Willis on the side effects of effortlessly moving plants and seeds around the world.
Orchidmania
Kathy Willis examines Charles Darwin's use of orchids as a scientific tool.
Tapping into Rubber
Kathy Willis explores the smuggling of rubber seeds from South America.
Taming the Exotic
Kathy Willis examines the Victorian race to flower the Amazonian water lily.
Lumping and Splitting
How naturalist Joseph Hooker globally acquired species to build up the first maps of flora
Blight on the Landscape
Out of the tragedy of the Irish potato famine in 1845, a new discipline in science emerged
Pressed Plants and Possibilities
How Kew's pressed plants collection established insights into plant relationships.
Plants to Shape Society
How plants proved a new route to political power and the growth of Britain's Empire.
A Rose by Any Other Name
Carl Linnaeus and a revolutionary grammar for plants.