The Private Life of Plants

00:00:42 Midwinter, and the countryside is so still, it seems almost lifeless.

00:02:48 Above, hazel leaves, moving to the same rhythm, pulse as they expand to their full size.

00:05:32 but the desert dunes are always moving

00:07:27 the resultant mass of puffballs would be 800 times the volume of the earth.

00:09:59 are transformed into wonderfully intricate globes

00:12:13 A few will reach a distant shore and germinate.

00:14:36 A slightly heavier seed or a shorter and narrower wing

00:16:46 Raindrops bounce off it, taking the seeds with them.

00:19:12 Many, doubtless, are lost at sea, but some eventually reach another, maybe distant, coast.

00:20:57 If the burdock is lucky, that'll happen some distance from where the adult plant grew.

00:23:02 Many plants in the dry heathlands of southern Africa engage them as carriers

00:24:47 and quickly spot them, for black is a very conspicuous colour.

00:26:55 are ferried away in the hornbill's crop for many miles.

00:28:11 What is certain is that cassowaries have no difficulty finding objects with these colours

00:29:52 This is the fruit and...

00:32:21 onto the open grasslands that fringe the rivers.

00:34:20 In Africa, elephants, similarly, have become crucial partners for acacias.

00:36:00 And, having fed, they move on.

00:38:28 the agouti.

00:40:32 as provisions to help it through hard times.

00:42:07 but the ivy-leaved toadflax nonetheless manages to get there.

00:44:17 so this is an excellent time for seeds to germinate.

00:46:15 And they stored their harvests in small pits in the ground.

00:47:52 of the fact that plants, with their seeds, are not only extraordinary travellers in space