BSkyB - Kingdom of Plants (2012) Part 1 Life in the Wet Zone

Kingdom of Plants

Kingdom of Plants is an astonishing 4-part series coming to Sky - and is written and presented by natural history broadcaster and Kew neighbour David Attenborough. Entering the strangely slow world of plant time, Attenborough explores how plants cleverly adapt to the changing seasons, including the explosive drama of seed dispersal and the bursts of colour as they bloom. 'One of the most wonderful things about filming plants is that you can reveal hidden aspects of their lives,' said David Attenborough. 'You can capture the moment as one plant strangles another, and as they burst into flower. But whilst time-lapse photography allows you to see things that no human being has ever seen before.’ Filmed over the course of a year at the Royal Botanic Gardens in West London, each of the three 50 minute episodes will cover a different area of plant life, from plant survival in wet and humid zones, scent and communication, and the continual adaptation of plants. This immersive and compelling series reveals a fascinating new look at plant life.

Part 1: Life in the Wet Zone David begins his journey inside the magnificent Palm House, a unique global rainforest in London. Here, he explores the extraordinary plants that are so well adapted to wet and humid environments and unravels the intimate relationships between wet zone plants and the animals that depend on them. It was in the wet zones of the world that plants first moved on to land and in the Waterlily House David reveals how flowers first evolved some 140 million years ago. Watching a kaleidoscope of breath-taking time-lapses of these most primitive of flowers swelling and blooming in 3D, he is able to piece together the very first evolutionary steps that plants took to employ a wealth of insects to carry their precious pollen for the first time. David discovers clues to answer a question that even had Charles Darwin stumped: how did flowering plants evolve so fast to go on to colonise the entire planet so successfully?

Kingdom of Plants