Plants: From Roots to Riches

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.

Radio 4 Extra,30 episodes

Episodes

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Omnibus
Episode 1
Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
10 Oct 2014,57 mins
Omnibus
Episode 2
Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
17 Oct 2014,15 mins
Omnibus
Episode 3
Prof Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
24 Oct 2014,58 mins
Omnibus
Episode 4
Kathy Willis explores our changing relationship with plants.
31 Oct 2014,58 mins
Omnibus
Episode 5
Final omnibus edition of Prof Kathy Willis's history of our relationship with plants.
07 Nov 2014,58 mins
The Great Providers
Kathy Willis examines how we are building future resilience into our modern crops.
22 Aug 2014,15 mins
Green and Pleasant Lands
Kathy Willis examines the importance of green landscapes, parks and gardens.
21 Aug 2014,15 mins
Capture and Drawdown
Kathy Willis examines new insights into plants as regulators of our planet.
20 Aug 2014,15 mins
Dynamic Rainforest
How DNA analysis is providing a new window into the evolution of the tropical rainforest.
19 Aug 2014,15 mins
A Blooming Tree of Life
Kathy Willis explores DNA fingerprinting and a new tree of life for plants.
18 Aug 2014,15 mins
A Useful Weed
Kathy Willis explores the legacy behind the mapping of the first plant genome.
15 Aug 2014,15 mins
Capsules of Life
Kathy Willis uncovers the role seedbanking plays in conserving worldwide plant diversity.
14 Aug 2014,15 mins
An Ill Wind
Kathy Willis explores the arboreal benefits that emerged from the great storm of 1987.
13 Aug 2014,15 mins
Unlocking Biodiversity
Kathy Willis describes the tools that are proving essential to map the world's flora.
12 Aug 2014,15 mins
Signals of Growth
Uncovering the elusive ways plants move and respond to their surroundings.
11 Aug 2014,15 mins
Botanical Medicine
Kathy Willis on how new opportunities opened up for finding medicines from plants.
08 Aug 2014,15 mins
Hunt for Diversity
Kathy Willis explores Nikolai Vavilov's pioneering search for unused varieties of crops.
07 Aug 2014,15 mins
Battling Bark and Beetle
Kathy Willis examines the origin and impact of Dutch elm disease across Europe.
06 Aug 2014,15 mins
Multiple Genes
Kathy Willis examines the mystery of a plant's ability to exist in multiple forms.
05 Aug 2014,15 mins
Towards the Light
Kathy Willis explores the harnessing of plants' ability to photosynthesise their own food.
04 Aug 2014,15 mins
Patterns from Crossed Peas
Kathy Willis on how Mendel's famous pea experiments helped to revolutionise horticulture.
01 Aug 2014,15 mins
Plant Invaders
Kathy Willis on the side effects of effortlessly moving plants and seeds around the world.
31 Jul 2014,15 mins
Orchidmania
Kathy Willis examines Charles Darwin's use of orchids as a scientific tool.
30 Jul 2014,15 mins
Tapping into Rubber
Kathy Willis explores the smuggling of rubber seeds from South America.
29 Jul 2014,15 mins
Taming the Exotic
Kathy Willis examines the Victorian race to flower the Amazonian water lily.
28 Jul 2014,15 mins
Lumping and Splitting
How naturalist Joseph Hooker globally acquired species to build up the first maps of flora
25 Jul 2014,15 mins
Blight on the Landscape
Out of the tragedy of the Irish potato famine in 1845, a new discipline in science emerged
24 Jul 2014,15 mins
Pressed Plants and Possibilities
How Kew's pressed plants collection established insights into plant relationships.
23 Jul 2014,15 mins
Plants to Shape Society
How plants proved a new route to political power and the growth of Britain's Empire.
22 Jul 2014,15 mins
A Rose by Any Other Name
Carl Linnaeus and a revolutionary grammar for plants.
21 Jul 2014,15 mins