Manly stuff

“The Private Life of Plants” isn't as spectacular as David Attenborough's later foray into the kingdom of Plantae and Fungi, “Kingdom of Plants 3D”, but that's mostly a function of the camera technology. Otherwise, all the bizarre stuff is here: 500 year old strangler figs, the Venus fly trap, the pitcher plant, the giant water lily, or the perfectly ordinary bramble – ordinary, that is, until you film it with time-lapse photography, revealing that the bramble bush is about as aggressive as an expansive human empire…

Somehow, I got even more paranoid about the houseplants surrounding me as we speak, after watching clips from this six-part series! As a kid, I assumed that plants were boring and somehow “girlie”, but it seems they are just as cool as sharks or mountain lions, ha ha.

Wind in the willows

This is the book version of David Attenborough's TV series “The Private Life of Plants”. Books like these were indispensable in the good ol' days before the World Wide Web. All the highlights of the show are here: bristlecone pines (one of these trees is 5000 years old?!), strangler figs (only 500 years old – tssk, tssk), an underground orchid in West Australia, the giant water lily of the Amazon, carrion flowers (guess what they smell like), the Venus fly trap, plants fooling insects into “mating” with them, etc etc. Some fungi have been thrown in for good measure, too, although fungi aren't really plants (well, not anymore). Good if you like plants, including the slightly absurd varieties. Probably a total waste of time otherwise…