Plants on TV

[Ron]

I have seen several shows recently on PBS streaming that I think will be of interest, as unlike most nature shows, they focus more on plants than animals.

"The Green Planet" features some amazing time-lapse photography.  It is a 5 part series narrated by David Attenborough.  The third episode (Seasonal Worlds) has a segment on the South African fynbos (starting at 22:50), including showing sunbirds pollinating 'fire lilies', which look like a cyrtanthus species to me.  Unfortunately they imply the fire lily remains dormant until after a fire, which I am guessing should have been only flowers after a fire.  These shows are currently free to stream, but like some shows on PBS may disappear within a week or two after the final show airs.

The other show is "Expeditions with Patrick McMillan", mainly showing different eco-regions in the United States, with an emphasis on the south-east.  This show actually displays the scientific names of most plants they discuss.  It is only available with PBS Passport, their donation streaming service, or as a fee-based rental on Prime.  It can be a bit redundant at times, but I found it to be otherwise very worthwhile.

Ron

[David Pilling]

Ron - thanks for the suggestions.

I am surprised people don't make much of YouTube channels on plants, for example Ian Young (the expert bulb grower) has one here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpLSJ9GmDtJMTdMo3nUWqWg/videos


Paywalls are a problem. Green Planet is a BBC product, there are bits and pieces on YouTube, but to see the whole thing for free you'd have to convince BBC iPlayer that you're in the UK.

"Expeditions with Patrick McMillan" does seem to be on You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Expeditions+with+Patrick+McMillan

[Martin Bohnet]

The Green Planet is available in German in the ZDF Mediathek - they've integrated it into the "Terra X" brand as "unser grüner Planet".

While I like it in general and I'm happy to have plant focussed programms, it is still plagued by the oh so modern, ADHD-ish "meanwhile on the other side of the planet" cut style.

[David Pilling]

I appear to be subscribed to:

https://www.youtube.com/@bulbomads/videos

"Mad about bulb plants!

The channel will serve to showcase some of the habitats and plants in situ from the Highveld and other regions in South Africa."

[Diane Whitehead]

I just clicked on the link you gave.  They have a lot of videos.  Does one need to pay to subscribe?

Diane

[David Pilling]

Does one need to pay to subscribe?

No. It is just a YouTube channel - free. There might be adverts, I pay to not get those