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THE GREEN PLANET

By Jennifer Robinson / Web Producer
Published June 22, 2022 at 1:55 PM PDT
Khasi family using a living root bridge. Meghalaya, India
Courtesy of BBC Studios
Khasi family using a living root bridge. Meghalaya, India

Encore Thursday, June 13, 2024 at 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 18, Wednesday, June 19, Thursday, June 20 and Friday, June 21 at 4 p.m. on KPBS 2 / Stream the series now with KPBS Passport!

On THE GREEN PLANET, a new five-part documentary series, Sir David Attenborough travels the globe to reveal the secret lives of plants. Using pioneering camera techniques, the series takes viewers on a magical journey inside the hidden world of plants, on which all animals — including humans — are dependent.

THE GREEN PLANET: Official Preview

EPISODE GUIDE:

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Episode 1: “Tropical Worlds” Encore Sunday, June 9 at 8 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Sir David Attenborough takes a plants-eye view of life in a rainforest, a world of stunning beauty but also fierce competition. New film techniques allow us to enter their magical world as never before.

THE GREEN PLANET: Meet the World's Biggest Flower

Episode 2: “Water Worlds” Encore Sunday, June 9 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Sir David Attenborough explores bizarre and beautiful water plants, which use nature’s super-glue, counting, and killer spikes to get a leaf up. Some escape from animals by rolling away while others create bubbles in a magical river in Brazil.

THE GREEN PLANET: How the Giant Water Lily Dominates

Episode 3: “Seasonal Worlds” Encore Sunday, June 9 at 10 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Sir David Attenborough reveals the surprising and dramatic effects of the four seasons on plant life. In order to survive the huge challenges each season presents, plants must use strategy, deception and remarkable feats of engineering.

THE GREEN PLANET: The Orchid that Pretends It's A Wasp

Episode 4: “Desert Worlds” Encore Thursday, June 20 at 4 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Sir David Attenborough explores the hostile world of the desert, where plants can spend decades waiting for rain or travel to find it. Survival tactics include using weapons, camouflage and forming surprising alliances with animals.

THE GREEN PLANET: Why Elephants Eat the Baobab Tree

Episode 5: “Human Worlds” Encore Friday, June 21 at 4 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Sir David Attenborough reveals how humans are helping plants, many of which face extinction. From projects in Africa to re-seeding the landscape to rebuilding a Brazilian rainforest tree by tree, everyone can work to make our world a little wilder.

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THE GREEN PLANET: How Do You Pollinate 40 Million Almond Trees?

Watch On Your Schedule: This series is available to stream now with KPBS Passport!

Related: Nine astonishing ways David Attenborough shaped your world

School children firing seed balls (containing Acacia tree seeds Acacia)into the landscape using catapults. Kenya.
BBC Studios
School children firing seedballs (containing Acacia tree seeds Acacia) into the landscape using catapults. Kenya
Behind the scenes. Camera operator Oliver Mueller uses a specially built robotic camera system, known as the Triffid, to film the corpse flower (Rafflesia keithii), Borneo.
Courtesy of BBC Studios/Paul Williams
Behind the scenes. Camera operator Oliver Mueller uses a specially built robotic camera system, known as the Triffid, to film the corpse flower (Rafflesia keithii), Borneo.
The football sized flower of the giant water lily Victoria species, of the Brazilian Pantanal wetland, turns pink after it has been pollinated.
Courtesy of BBC Studios/João Paulo Krajewski
The football sized flower of the giant water lily Victoria species, of the Brazilian Pantanal wetland, turns pink after it has been pollinated.
Sir David Attenborough demonstrates how the fluffy seeds of the Bulrush, Typha latifolia, can be carried on the wind to new bodies of water, where they can germinate. UK.
Courtesy of BBC Studios
Sir David Attenborough demonstrates how the fluffy seeds of the Bulrush, Typha latifolia, can be carried on the wind to new bodies of water, where they can germinate. UK.
Saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea), Sonoran desert, Ariz
Sir David Attenborough explores the hostile world of the desert, where plants can spend decades waiting for rain or travel to find it. Pictured: Saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea), Sonoran desert, Ariz. A mature saguaro can store 5000 litres of water. To accommodate this it has pleats, like an accordion, that run up its trunk and along its arms. After rain the saguaro expands, and the pleats flatten, as the internal water tank is filled
The flowers of the ‘7-hour flower’, Merinthopodium neuranthom, are pollinated by Underwood's Long-tongued Bat
Courtesy of BBC Studios/Paul Williams
The flowers of the ‘7-hour flower’, Merinthopodium neuranthom, are pollinated by Underwood's Long-tongued Bat (Hylonycteris underwoodi). La Selva, Costa Rica. The bat is the plants primary pollinator and the plants nectar is the bats main source of food.
Honeybee Apis mellifera visits the flower of an Almond tree Prunus dulcis. Central Valley, Calif.
Courtesy of BBC Studios
Domestic Honeybee Apis mellifera visits the flower of an Almond tree Prunus dulcis. Central Valley, Calif.

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Jennifer Robinson
Jen is a web producer at KPBS, responsible for program promotion, online membership-related activities, and is the editor of the KPBS community calendar. Jen has worked at KPBS since 2000. She is originally from Las Vegas and attended UNLV.
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