In Defense of Plants Podcast

By In Defense of Plants

Natural Sciences Science & Medicine

What's In Defense of Plants Podcast about?

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 celebrating everything botany.

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Ep. 300 - Reconstructing a ...

01.17.2021

Imagine being able to travel back 120 million years to the Early Cretaceous and scoop up handfuls of the forest floor. The amount you would discover in that material would be mind blowing and, amazingly, this is essentially what my ...

In Defense of Plants Podcast episodes:

01.17.2021 Ep. 300 - Reconstructing a Cretaceous Flora Imagine being able to travel back 120 million years to the Early Cretaceous and scoop up handfuls of the forest floor. The amount you would discover in that material would be mind blowing and, amazingly, this is essentially what my ...
01.10.2021 Ep. 299 - Aquatic Plants & Phytoremediation Grab your snorkel and goggles because this episode takes us underwater. I sit down for a conversation with Assistant Professor Dr. La Toya Kissoon-Charles about the ways in which aquatic plants both impact and are impacted by their watery environment. ...
01.03.2021 Ep. 298 - Living the Gypsum Life: How Geology Can Drive Speciation You may have heard of the mineral gypsum through its use in making plasters, chalks, and drywall, but are you aware of its influence on plant speciation? Indeed, soils heavy in gypsum present unique challenges to plant growth but that ...
12.27.2020 Ep. 297 - A Deep Dive on the Cashew Family What do cashews (Anacardium spp.), mangoes (Mangifera spp.), pistachios (Pistacia spp.), and poison ivy (Toxicodendron spp.) have in common? They are all members of the family Anacardiaceae! In this episode, I sit down with Deputy Executive Director at the United ...
12.20.2020 Ep. 296 - Expanding Your Barberry Horizon In this episode, we do a deep dive into the barberry family, Berberidaceae, with environmentalist, author, and garden designer Lyndon Penner. Many of us will be familiar with the Mahonias or the prickly barberry shrubs, but they overshadow some of ...
12.13.2020 Ep. 295 - Sniffing Out Solutions: How Dogs Can Help Us Save Plants Dogs are among our oldest companions. Our propensity for cohabitation and collaboration leads to unique bonds that are rare in the animal kingdom. In this episode we sit down with members of Rogue Detection Teams to talk about how some ...
12.06.2020 Ep. 294 - Herbaria: Past, Present, and Future This episode takes a deep dive into the past, present, and future of herbaria. I sit down with Director of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, Dr. Barbara M. Thiers about her new book "Herbarium: The Quest to Preserve and ...
11.29.2020 Ep. 293 - How Plants Fight Disease From plant conservation to food security, we desperately need to understand how plants fight disease. As you can probably imagine, the world of plant-microbe interactions is vast and complicated but that's where people like Dr. Kevin Cox Jr come in. ...
11.22.2020 Ep. 292 - Investigating the Black Market Trade in Dudleya farinosa Plant poaching is abhorrent and we can't work towards a solution without a proper understanding of the motivations behind it. That's where people like Dr. Jared Margulies come in. In this episode we sit down to talk about what he ...
11.15.2020 Ep. 291 - Tales from the Cliff: Preventing Brighamia Extinction From feral goats, pigs, and deer, to the extinction of it's suspected pollinator, the ʻŌlulu (Brighamia insignis) has a lot stacked against it. Yet, despite being extinct in the wild, the ʻŌlulu is surprisingly common in cultivation all thanks for ...
11.08.2020 Ep. 290 - The Chemical Symphony of Plant Perception Plant perception: few topics are the subject of more pseudoscience and misinformation than this one. Luckily there are people like Dr. Lauren Erland who exist to shine a scientific light on the topic. Dr. Erland studies, among other things, the ...
11.01.2020 Ep. 289 - The Personal Journey of Gardening Writer, naturalist, and gardener Dan Hinkley returns to the podcast to talk about his new book "Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens," which is a touchingly honest tale of his own journey in creating his own personal garden. ...
10.25.2020 Ep. 288 - Doin' Good by Grasses Whether we realize it or not, this planet and all life on it are influenced by grasses. Among the most important are grasses belonging to the tribe Andropogoneae. Members of this group include crops such as corn, sugarcane, and sorghum, ...
10.18.2020 Ep. 287 - Invasion Meltdowns Invasive species are second only to habitat destruction in causing loss of biodiversity on this planet. Moving one species to a habitat where it didn't evolve or even giving native species a new advantage can cause ripples that spread throughout ...
10.11.2020 Ep. 286 - Grappling With Plant Extinctions This episode is all about one of the most difficult topics in natural history - extinction. Plants set the foundation for nearly all life on Earth and yet they receive a mere fraction of the attention and effort needed to ...
10.04.2020 Ep. 285 - Eyes in the Sky: Plant Conservation's Aerial Assistant Treacherous topography can often serve as a safeguard for rare plant populations. Being difficult or even impossible to reach can protect plants from the myriad pressures that threaten them. Imagine what we could find tucked away among cliffs and ledges ...
09.27.2020 Ep. 284 - Trees in a Changing Climate Climates have always changed but thanks to human activity it is happening at an ever-increasing rate. For sessile organisms like trees, this often means either adapting in place or risk going extinct. However predicting the outcomes of climate change on ...
09.20.2020 Ep. 283 - The Cultural and Ecological Implications of the Salep Orchid Trade This episode is dedicated to the trade of a culinary ingredient that involves multiple orchid species. Salep is derived from the tubers of many terrestrial orchids and no one really understands how modern demand for this ingredient is affecting their ...
09.13.2020 Ep. 282 - The Rosid Radiation When we think of biodiversity and evolution, the tropical regions of our planet are frequently touted as hotspots for speciation. Indeed, the tropics house more species than most other regions, however, that doesn't mean that temperate areas haven't contributed to ...
09.06.2020 Ep. 281 - Sustainable Recreation & Plant Conservation There are many ways to make hiking one of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly activities on Earth, but building trails on rare and unique plant communities is not one of them. Sensitive plants and habitats can be destroyed in ...
08.30.2020 Ep. 280 - At the Intersection of Conservation and Horticulture In this episode we are joined by Conservation Horticulturist Emma Neigel of the Atlanta Botanical Garden to talk about the intersection of horticulture and conservation. When it comes to plant conservation, it isn't enough to just study why plants are ...
08.23.2020 Ep. 279 - A Pollinator Plant of the Year Program There is a lot of information out there on which plants to choose for your garden. Often this information is geared towards a wide audience living in vastly different climate zones. As such, it can be extremely difficult to figure ...
08.16.2020 Ep. 278 - Glossopteris: Resloving a Mystery 299 Million Years in the Making The Glossopteris flora is one of the most important links that we have to the Permian Era. These trees dominated the supercontinent of Gondwana from around 299 to 230 million years ago and their fossilized remains have dazzled the human ...
08.09.2020 Ep. 277 - Pitcher Plant Symbioses In this episode we look at what's going on inside the pitchers of carnivorous pitcher plants. Besides functioning as organs for prey capture and digestion, these highly modified leaves also serve as miniature ecological communities that have a lot to ...
08.02.2020 Ep. 276 - A Native Bee-nanza! With insects on the decline around the globe, the need for native bee understanding and appreciation has never been more apparent. While some native bees are super charismatic and well known,many more are cryptic and poorly understood. That is where ...
07.26.2020 Ep. 275 - Saving Sonora: The Green Desert The human population of the Sonoran Desert is growing quickly, developing the surrounding landscape at an alarming pace. At the same time, botanists are racing to understand the fate of this so called "green deserts flora." In this episode we ...
07.19.2020 Ep. 274 - Hollow Trees = Habitat Move over raccoons and squirrels, hollow trees have some additional residents to support. Joining us on this episode are Dr.'s Lary Reeves and Andrei Sourakov to talk to us about how hollow trees are proving to be great spots to ...
07.12.2020 Ep. 273 - Revolution in the Garden This episode we are joined by Colah B. Tawkin, host of the incredible Black in the Garden, a podcast that "resides at the intersection of Black Culture and horticulture." For Colah, gardening has been revolutionary in many ways. Join us ...
07.05.2020 Ep. 272 - Restoring the American Chestnut This episode is all about the work being done by The American Chestnut Foundation and their partners to save the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) from extinction. Ravaged by an invasive fungal pathogen, this tree went from a dominant species in ...
06.28.2020 Ep. 271 - The Ecological and Evolutionary Mysteries of Cannabis Cannabis - few plants have captured the attention of our species as these have. Both celebrated and demonized, our sociopolitical views on Cannabis have greatly hindered our understanding of this genus. From its origins to its chemical ecology, there are ...
06.21.2020 Ep. 270 - A Native Plant Based Life This episode is all about celebrating native plants both in the wild and in the garden. We are joined by environmentalist, author, and garden designer Lyndon Penner to talk about his life-long obsession with Canada's amazing diversity of native plants. ...
06.14.2020 Ep. 269 - Cultivating Peace One cannot overstate the power of gardening to calm the mind, reinvigorate passion, and bring people together. Understanding and growing plants is one of life's greatest joys and that is exactly the sentiment our guest this week wants to share ...
06.07.2020 Ep. 268 - How Small Flies Made A Lot Of Orchids In this episode, we are joined by PhD student Melissa Díaz-Morales and director of the Lankester Botanical Gardens Dr. Adam Karremans to look at how flies have managed to influence the evolution of the largest subtribe of orchids in the ...
05.31.2020 Ep. 267 - Describing & Protecting Palm Diversity Historically speaking, palm taxonomy has been a bit tricky. This is due in large part by the difficulty in collecting and preparing proper specimens. Thankfully, with the advent of affordable DNA technologies, botanists are gaining new insights into palm diversity ...
05.24.2020 Ep. 266 - After the Blast: The Ecological Recovery of Mount St. Helens In May of 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, creating a path of destruction for hundreds of miles. No one thought life would return to that stretch of mountain for decades but they were wrong. In only a few short weeks, ...
05.17.2020 Ep. 265 - Ancient Trees: Living on the Edge What does it take to live many hundreds or even thousands of years? For trees, it often means growing in places like cliffs where few other things can. My guest today has studied ancient cliff dwelling trees from all over ...
05.10.2020 Ep. 264 - The Longleaf Alliance Speaks for the Trees Longleaf pines once covered 90 million acres of southeastern North America. Today, human development has seen that number reduced down to 3 million acres. The decline in this tree has come at great cost to the ecosystems it once comprised. ...
05.03.2020 Ep. 263 - Earthworm Invaders This week we are joined by director of The University of Minnesota Center for Forest Ecology, Dr. Lee Frelich to discuss an invasive species problem that threatens plant diversity and ecosystem functioning wherever it occurs. Earthworms are very powerful ecosystem ...
04.26.2020 Ep. 262 - On the Origin & History of Field Guides This week we take an even closer look at the world of field guides with science historian Dr. Sara Scharf. Field guides began as a tool for botanists to better understand the plants in their region but they have since ...
04.19.2020 Ep. 261 - Talking About Field Guides With The Field Guides Today we take a step back for a fun conversation about field guides. Field guides are wonderful tools that help us identify the species with which we share the world. In this episode we are joined by Bill and Steve, ...
04.12.2020 Ep. 260 - Hoya Hullabaloo! Hoyas are a group of vines that are gaining a lot of popularity among houseplant growers in recent years but what are these plants exactly? Where do they come from? What are they related to? How do we succeed in ...
04.05.2020 Ep. 259 - Micropropagating Orchids at the Atlanta Botanical Garden What does it take to go from orchid seed to orchid adult? Today you are going to find out. Joining us from the Atlanta Botanical Garden is Micropropagation and Seed Bank Coordinator, Jason Ligon. Jason is in charge of propagating ...
03.29.2020 Ep. 258 - What It Takes to Save Plants From seed collection to restoring populations, this episode is all about what it takes to save rare plants from extinction. Joining us is Dr. Joyce Maschinski, Director of Plant Conservation for San Diego Zoo Global, and President and CEO of ...
03.22.2020 Ep. 257 - 'Cuz a Houseplant Party Don't Stop Today we are joined by the one and only Jane Perrone, houseplant guru and host of the wonderful On the Ledge podcast. Houseplants are such a wonderful hobby to indulge in, especially in recent weeks, and Jane is dedicated to ...
03.15.2020 Ep. 256 - Spurge is the Word The sandmat spurges probably do not factor into the daily lives of most people. Yet, we walk over them, we trample them, we pull them from our lawns and gardens with little regard to their incredible natural history. The spurge ...
03.08.2020 Ep. 255 - Wild Hydrangeas of the World The name "Hydrangea" most often conjures up images of medium sized shrubs adorned with pom poms of bright blue or pink flowers. Our exposure to this incredible genus is often very limited. This is a shame because the world of ...
03.01.2020 Ep. 254 - Native Plant Trust Native Plant Trust has one major goal in mind: conserving and promoting New England's native plants. Founded in 1900, Native Plant Trust is America's oldest plant conservation organization. Since then, it has gone through some name changes (Society for the ...
02.24.2020 Ep. 253 - Earth's First Forests The Devonian Period was for plants what the Cambrian Period was for animals. Land plants really started to experiment with new forms of growth some 380 million years ago which led to the establishment of the first forests on Earth. ...
02.16.2020 Ep. 252 - Plant Conservation at a Zoo A zoo getting involved in plant conservation? Sounds pretty radical but that is exactly what the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens is doing. These efforts are born out of the fact that you can't conserve animals without conserving their habitat and ...
02.09.2020 Ep. 251 - A Florida Moth Keeping Invasive Species in Check The movement of species around the globe is akin to opening Pandora's Box. Once an invasive species becomes established, it can be very difficult, if not impossible to get it under control. Every once in a while, however, nature provides ...

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