What\u2019s the headline theme?<\/h3>\n
How plants survive in one of the most challenging locations on earth: under and in water. If you\u2019re on land, you\u2019re rooted to the spot and your environment doesn\u2019t change. If you live in, say, a mountain stream with a constant torrent of water cascading past, that\u2019s going to present a huge strain. So, we look at how plants feed and carve out niches in different watery worlds.<\/p>\n
What particularly impressive plant \u2018behaviour\u2019 do you show?<\/h3>\n
Most of us are familiar with the Venus fly trap<\/a>, but it\u2019s a far more sophisticated plant than we realise. People think you simply flick the trigger hairs and the plant will clamp shut. Not so. We take Sir David to Kew Gardens, where he demonstrates that if you flick the hairs once, nothing happens; flick them again 20 seconds later and the plant reacts. This is because Venus fly trap mechanisms use a lot of energy, and the plant must be aware of false alarms: one \u2018touch\u2019 might just be a droplet of water, but two in succession is more likely to be prey.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s more. The trap doesn\u2019t seal completely, so tiny creatures can escape \u2013 which is fine, as they\u2019re not worth eating. If bigger insects, which can\u2019t escape, trigger the hairs five more times, the plant starts the process of digestion. It\u2019s amazing \u2013 in a way, the plant is counting.<\/p>\n We all know that green plants photosynthesise \u2013 they take in CO2 and give out O2. There\u2019s a stream in Brazil where you can actually see this happening. The stream is fed by springs and is rich in CO2, making conditions perfect for photosynthesis. When the sun rises, the plants carpeting the sides and bed of the stream start the process, giving off curtains of bubbles that make the water fizz like champagne. It\u2019s not an iguana being chased by a racer snake<\/a>, but it\u2019s magical and profound.<\/p>\n Yes. Some of the plants in the \u2018fizzy\u2019 stream become so buoyant that they \u2018lift off\u2019, taking lumps of bedrock with them. It\u2019s like the film Up<\/em>, where a house is carried away by balloons. Nobody has seen this before, and our cameraman caught it completely by chance.<\/p>\n The marimo in Lake Akan, Japan<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s rarely been filmed. It\u2019s a primitive algae that forms when the lake freezes. When the ice melts, the algae break off in clumps and, over months or years, the movement of the water rolls them into spheres. They eventually settle on the lakebed at a depth of about six feet, alongside millions of other marimo. It looks like some sort of art installation \u2013 the cameraman described it as a \u2018sea of Tamagotchis\u2019. Few people have heard of it, but the marimo is a national treasure in Japan. It is protected, so we had to ensure our camera gear didn\u2019t come into contact with them, and we had a scientist with us at all times.<\/p>\n You may also like:<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> The giant water lily in the Brazilian Pantanal \u2013 it\u2019s a huge plant that can grow to two metres across. It\u2019s a great character. There are one or two lagoons where they do \u2018battle\u2019 with other surface plants, such as water lettuce and water hyacinth. From its roots on the riverbed, the lily sends up an amazing slender leafhead that looks like a Nasa rocket. When at the surface it starts to swipe around, pushing other plants out of the way. Then the huge leaves unfurl, casting everything beneath into shadow. It reminds me of the scene from Independence Day<\/em>, when the enormous spaceship glides overhead.<\/p>\n The sequence \u2013 which starts with a single plant blooming and ends with a drone shot of the whole river being covered in giant water lilies \u2013 took over a year, and was filmed both on location in Brazil and in a studio. We used time-lapse expert Tim Shephard, who I like to call Mr Plant. He thinks like a plant and knows just how to keep them happy, with the right amount of nutrients and light levels. He created a mini Pantanal in his studio in Devon using plants from Kew Gardens, in the biggest tank he\u2019s ever made. It took him over a year.<\/p>\n We then installed a gantry around the tank, which allowed us to do a time lapse, following the lilies as they grew and crushed the other plants. Following the plants moving to their own timescale, their behaviour is much more animal-like. You can follow them in a way that really brings them to life.<\/p> As we were doing a lot of studio work, we could carry on with that. We\u2019d already filmed the marimo in Japan before lockdown, luckily. We then made the most of gaps in lockdown. Assistant producer Joe Russell managed to get to Formentera, near Ibiza, to film seagrass, for instance. This is a really important story as seagrass<\/a> is out of sight, out of mind, yet it can trap carbon 35 times faster than a tropical rainforest, so is vital in the fight against climate change.<\/p>\n As lockdown eased we were also able to do several UK shoots. We filmed water crowfoot, part of the buttercup family, on a chalk stream near Salisbury, and it was one of the most spectacular things I\u2019ve seen. We were using a Laowa probe lens, which gives more of a plant perspective. We then filmed the stream on a long lens, and suddenly had this frame-filling scene of flowers slowly drifting along. I\u2019d never seen this plant in that way before.<\/p>\n We were checking out a river in Brazil when I spotted a caiman. The boatman said there\u2019d be five or six more, and I didn\u2019t believe him. To prove me wrong, he started calling them by making a peculiar noise with his throat. Within a few minutes we were surrounded.<\/p>\n Snorkelling in the fizzing stream in Brazil. it was like being in a magical dream, with the bubbling water backlit by the sun, surrounded by greenery that was also reflecting off the water surface. When you go to Antarctica, you see the world in a thousand shades of blue; here, it\u2019s a thousand shades of green.<\/p>\n![\""Venus\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/23904671-high_res-the-green-planet-98c9e23.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349"\" "\\"\"The\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>What rarely seen behaviour is there?<\/h3>\n
Any filming firsts?<\/h3>\n
![\""Underwater\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/23815164-high_res-the-green-planet-c291072.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"The\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>What quirky new species do you introduce?<\/h3>\n
![\""Triffid\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/Green-planet-ep-1-big-triffid-rafflesia-5957d55.jpg?quality=45&resize=556,556"\" "\\"\"The\\"")
<\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>What\u2019s the most spectacular sequence?<\/h3>\n
How did you film it?<\/h3>\n
How did you cope with the pandemic?<\/h3>\n
![\""Water\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/23904742-high_res-the-green-planet-f12a205.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349"\" "\\"\"The\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Any close shaves?<\/h3>\n
What\u2019s your most memorable moment?<\/h3>\n