How to Grow a Planet
We might think that humans are the most powerful living thing on Earth, but it is plants that time and again have set the agenda for life. Plants enabled amphibians to leave the water, they had a hand in the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, and they ensured the ultimate triumph of insects, mammals and birds. This series offers a stunning new perspective on Earth's history.
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Episode 3
June 19, 2012
The final episode looks at the most powerful plant in our planet's history: grass. Grass became the most effective creator of oxygen on Earth. It turned the land into a flaming inferno - and helped fill the seas with life. It created the environment for our ancient ancestors to come out of the tree and begin to walk on their hind legs. And above all, it triggered the human move to civilisation.
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Episode 2
June 12, 2012
Episode two looks at the importance of flowers. It reveals how they brought the miracle of colour to a bland and monochrome planet; it explores the power of the seed and it uncovers how, when the dinosaurs were wiped out, it was flowering plants which inherited the Earth.
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Episode 1
June 5, 2012
The first episode takes a look at how plants created the world. A team of botanists, plant hunters and scientists hunt down the descendants of the plants that have dominated and driven the most fundamental changes in Earth history - creating the oxygen we breathe, the soil we walk on and deciding which animals live and die.
