Plants: From Roots to Riches Podcast
Kathy Willis considers our changing relationship with plants over the last 250 years - from tools to exploit, to objects of beauty, to being an essential resource we must conserve.
Episodes to download
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Episode 5—Omnibus
Fri 7 Nov 2014
5/5 Final omnibus edition of Prof Kathy Willis's history of our relationship with plants.
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Episode 3—Omnibus
Fri 24 Oct 2014
3/5 Prof Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
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The Great Providers
Fri 22 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis examines how we are building future resilience into our modern crops.
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Green and Pleasant Lands
Thu 21 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis examines the importance of green landscapes, parks and gardens.
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Capture and Drawdown
Wed 20 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis examines new insights into plants as regulators of our planet.
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Dynamic Rainforest
Tue 19 Aug 2014
How DNA analysis is providing a new window into the evolution of the tropical rainforest.
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A Blooming Tree of Life
Mon 18 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis explores DNA fingerprinting and a new tree of life for plants.
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A Useful Weed
Fri 15 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis explores the legacy behind the mapping of the first plant genome.
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Capsules of Life
Thu 14 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis uncovers the role seedbanking plays in conserving worldwide plant diversity.
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An Ill Wind
Wed 13 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis explores the arboreal benefits that emerged from the great storm of 1987.
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Unlocking Biodiversity
Tue 12 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis describes the tools that are proving essential to map the world's flora.
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Signals of Growth
Mon 11 Aug 2014
Uncovering the elusive ways plants move and respond to their surroundings.
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Botanical Medicine
Fri 8 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis on how new opportunities opened up for finding medicines from plants.
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Hunt for Diversity
Thu 7 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis explores Nikolai Vavilov's pioneering search for unused varieties of crops.
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Battling Bark and Beetle
Wed 6 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis examines the origin and impact of Dutch elm disease across Europe.
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Multiple Genes
Tue 5 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis examines the mystery of a plant's ability to exist in multiple forms.
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Towards the Light
Mon 4 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis explores the harnessing of plants' ability to photosynthesise their own food.
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Patterns from Crossed Peas
Fri 1 Aug 2014
Kathy Willis on how Mendel's famous pea experiments helped to revolutionise horticulture.
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Plant Invaders
Thu 31 Jul 2014
Kathy Willis on the side effects of effortlessly moving plants and seeds around the world.
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Orchidmania
Wed 30 Jul 2014
Kathy Willis examines Charles Darwin's use of orchids as a scientific tool.
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Tapping into Rubber
Tue 29 Jul 2014
Kathy Willis explores the smuggling of rubber seeds from South America.
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Taming the Exotic
Mon 28 Jul 2014
Kathy Willis examines the Victorian race to flower the Amazonian water lily.
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Lumping and Splitting
Fri 25 Jul 2014
How naturalist Joseph Hooker globally acquired species to build up the first maps of flora
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Blight on the Landscape
Thu 24 Jul 2014
Out of the tragedy of the Irish potato famine in 1845, a new discipline in science emerged
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Pressed Plants and Possibilities
Wed 23 Jul 2014
How Kew's pressed plants collection established insights into plant relationships.
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Plants to Shape Society
Tue 22 Jul 2014
How plants proved a new route to political power and the growth of Britain's Empire.
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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Delve deeper into plant science and find out more about plants featured in the series
The Power of Plants
Discover a selection of programmes relating to plants.
