The Green Planet

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Corpse Flower is more than 3 feet across, blooms for only one week, and smells like a rotting... well, corpse! It's a strategy evolved to lure carrion flies.