Ep. 594 - Of Orchids & Woodpeckers
What do the white fringeless orchid ( Platanthera integrilabia ) and the red-cockaded woodpecker ( Leuconotopicus borealis ) have in common?...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
Science & Medicine
In Defense of Plants Podcast
Plants are everything. They are also incredibly interesting. From the smallest duckweed to the tallest redwood, the botanical world is full of wonder. Join my friends and I for a podcast cel...
Episodes
20 of 597 episodes
Ep. 593 - Orchids & their Fungal Partners
Orchids are the botanical poster children for plant-fungi interactions. Every orchid has a close relationship with at least one species of o...
Ep. 592 - What Cherries & Company Can Teach Us About Evolution
The genus Prunus gives us apricots, plums, cherries, and almonds, but also a ton of under appreciated plant diversity. Prunus around the wor...
Ep. 591 - Justice for Habitats
Habitats face pressures from all sorts of threats. Illegal logging, mining, and poaching are driving extinctions, accelerating climate chang...
Ep. 590 - The Complex Ecology of Puerto Rico's Forests
Puerto Rico may not be a very large island but its forests certainly are complex. Historically, Puerto Rico lost nearly 95% of its forest co...
Ep. 589 - Epiphytes & the Water Cycle
Epiphytes of one kind or another are ubiquitous components of ecosystems around the globe, but we still know little about what they are doin...
Ep. 588 - Investigating Boreal Rarities
Rare plants aren't rare for the same reasons. They aren't even rare at different points in time. Figuring out the causes and consequences of...
Ep. 587 - Cloning & Conservation in Plants
Cloning may seem like a futuristic topic largely reserved for science fiction but plants are doing it all the time. Clonality is one of the...
Ep. 586 - Restoring a Galápagos Forest
Daisy trees, petrels, and pink iguanas... The Galápagos Islands are home to unique endemic species found nowhere else in the world. Sadly, t...
Ep. 585 - Dragonflies Need Plants
Dragonflies and damselflies are voracious aerial predators that help keep populations of other insects like mosquitoes in check. These amazi...
Ep. 584 - Understanding Forest Disturbance
Disturbances from fire and wind to insects and humans play a huge role in forest dynamics through time. Throw in the impacts of climate chan...
Ep. 583 - Commonness, Rarity, and Invasive Species
How common or rare are species in an ecosystem? The answer to this might seem simple, but as with everything in nature, it is not. This ques...
Ep. 582 - Extreme Aquatic Plants
When you start studying a group of plants, you never know what you are going to find. Sometimes it's important insights into pollination and...
Ep. 581 - The Complex World of Plant/Fungi Interactions
Plants are habitat. Heck, even a single leaf is habitat. Same goes for plant roots. This is especially true when we consider insects and fun...
Ep. 580 - Celebrating a Foundational Aquatic Plant
What could be better than a tiny plant with an outsized impact on the world around it? Hornleaf riverweed AKA Podostemum ceratophyllum is on...
Ep. 579 - Pollen & Seed Storage Efforts
Seed storage is one of the most important tools in plant conservation, but did you know you can also store pollen? We still have a lot to le...
Ep. 578 - Trees & Their Hybrids in a Changing World
Long lived organisms like trees face a lot of challenges throughout their lifetime. Disturbances big and small coupled with climate change a...
Ep. 577 - Ginger Flowers & Plant Evolution
What can investigating the genes in flower development teach us about plant evolution? A lot! What started as a simple question about the qu...
Ep. 576 - Of Micro Moths & Plants
Micro moths are a wonderfully diverse group of underappreciated insects living all around us. How they interact with their environment, part...
Ep. 575 - Endemic Plants of the Gulf Coast
The Gulf Coast of southeastern North America is a biodiversity hotspot brimming with cool plants. Everywhere you look, there are plants that...