The plant Rafflesia has the world’s largest flowers and gives off one of the worst scents; it’s also something of a biological enigma, a leafless parasite that lives off forest vines. For the botanist Chris Thorogood, an expert in parasitic and carnivorous plants at the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, Rafflesia is also an obsession. In his book, Pathless Forest, he goes in search of this mysterious plant in some of the last wildernesses in South East Asia.
Dr Kelsey Byers is an evolutionary chemical ecologist who specialises in floral scent and its influence on the evolution of flowering plants. In her laboratory at the John Innes Centre in Norwich she studies how flowers use different smells to attract their pollinator of choice. From sweet aromas to the stink of rotting flesh, she explores how plants use con-artistry and sexual deception to thrive.
The ethnobotanist William Milliken from Kew Gardens has spent much of his career working with indigenous people in the Amazon to preserve traditional plant knowledge. Now he’s focused on collecting folklore about the use of plants to treat ailments in animals in Britain. From wild garlic treating mastitis in cows, to cabbage for flatulence in dogs, he hopes to uncover a cornucopia of plant-based veterinary medicines.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Island Mentality
Virtue and Vice
Alan Bennett
Microbes, Genes and Human Endeavour
Soldiering on: the British Army, Lenin and Putin
Radical Liverpool
Political Drama: Robert Harris and Margaret Hodge
Love, Loss and Scandal
Food: From Bread Riots to Obesity
A Theory of Everything?
New Artistic Director of the ENO, Daniel Kramer
Genes: Our medical inheritance
Hay Festival: Spooks, war and genocide
Lost and Found: Ancient Egypt to Modern Art
World on the Move
Technology in Education
Cross-dressing and masculinity with Grayson Perry
Anish Kapoor on Light and Dark
Reporting War and Conflict
Loneliness and Inner Voices
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Maverick Show with Matt Bowles
Global News Podcast
The Infinite Monkey Cage
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins