How to Watch ‘The Green Planet’

Published on July 12, 2022 by PBS

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. | Credit: BBC

Sir David Attenborough has journeyed across the world – and even into the past – to show his viewers the incredible wildlife that populates planet Earth. Join him this summer as he takes you on his latest adventure, a deep dive into the flora of our marvelous “Green Planet.”

Sir David Attenborough is one of the world's most respected broadcasters and naturalists. For more than 50 years, he has been entertaining and enlightening audiences with his unique brand of wit and wisdom.

Born in 1926, Sir David started his career as a producer with the BBC Natural History Unit. He went on to make some of the most iconic wildlife programs of all time, including “Life on Earth” and “The Blue Planet.”

In recent years, Sir David has been a vocal champion of action on climate change. He has also campaigned for the protection of endangered species and habitats –many of the latter are showcased in “The Green Planet.”

The show covers the wildly different landscapes and biomes of Earth, from rainforests, where plants must deal with an abundance of rain to arid deserts where plants must live to learn with almost no water. On “The Green Planet,” Sir David Attenborough takes you on a tour of Earth’s most interesting plants, including ones that flourish in tropical worlds, ones that grow in water and even those that bloom in icy snow forest or in the pavement cracks of bustling cities.

“The Green Planet” premieres this summer on PBS.

Where to Watch The Green Planet

"The Green Planet" premiered on PBS in the US on July 6th at 8/7c and will concurrently stream on PBS Passport, an added member benefit, which offers extended access to a large digital, on-demand library of PBS favorites. Find your local station or get the PBS Video app to start watching today. The show airs through August 3rd.

While you wait for each episode of “The Green Planet” to air, check out this trailer and these clips from the show.

The Green Planet - Teaser

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.

Preview 30s

Preview

The Green Planet - Teaser

30s

Clip

The War Between Fungi and Trees

Watch vines and the world's fastest growing tree, the balsa, in a battle to reach the sun with beautiful time-lapse photography.

Clip

The Fungi that Help Trees Talk

2m 57s

Fungi is able to link a whole group of trees through their root systems, creating a 'wood wide web' called the Mycorrhizal Network. Using this network, trees are able to pass nutrients, chemical and electrical signals to each other raising the alarm when being attacked.

Clip

How Vines Lasso Their Way to the Top of the Plant World

3m 20s

Watch vines and the world's fastest growing tree, the balsa, in a battle to reach the sun with beautiful time-lapse photography.

Clip

The Plant that Makes Its Home on a Cactus

3m 16s

Tristerix seeds travel in bird droppings, when they land on a cactus they grow long probe-like stems, that latch onto the cactus body and inject it with parasitic threads. A year later Tristerix bursts out of the cactus skin as a bloom of beautiful flowers that attract hummingbird pollinators.

Clip

How the Giant Water Lily Dominates

2m 22s

The Giant Water Lily expands by over 6 inches a day, and reaches over 6 feet across as it expands to take up as much sunlight as it can.

Clip

Why Elephants Eat the Baobab Tree

2m 38s

The elephant has a special relationship with the baobab, eating its fruit and spreading its seeds. The elephant also uses this tree as a key water source during migration, using it's water-rich inner wood to quench their thirst on long migrations. This damages the baobab, but it normally regenerates. Global warming has disrupted this cycle.

Clip

The 12,000-year-old Plant that Barely Grows

The creosote bush is one of the slowest growing plants documented, an essential survival strategy in an arid desert. It's only active for very brief periods, growing during a rare rainfall. David Attenborough visited the same bush in 1982, where it looked almost identical - since then, the bush has only grown a single inch!

Clip

What Photosynthesis Looks Like Underwater

2m 17s

When plants photosynthesize underwater, they release oxygen as little air bubbles that float to the surface. Where the plants are dense, it can create sea of fizzing bubbles.

Clip

How Saguaro Cacti Store 1000 Gallons of Water

2m 9s

The saguaro features a pleated surface which allows it to expand to contain all the water it needs: it can hold over a thousand gallons. During dry times, it can pull from this source to grow and produce flowers and seeds. When fully loaded, the cactus won't need to absorb water for an entire year.

Clip

How Venus Flytraps Count

2m 50s

Venus Flytraps use both hairpin triggers and counting to make sure they're catching prey worth eating.

Clip

How "Weeds" Grow in the Sidewalk

2m 32s

Some plants can survive anywhere, even the heart of the city. These "weeds", like the Ivy-Leaved Toadflax, can grow on walls and other shear surfaces without any soil. The plant grows and blooms towards the light to attract pollinators, but once the seedpods develop it will turn inwards seeking a dark crevice to grow in. Such cracks are all it needs to produce a new plant.

Clip

A Plant Parasite with an Insatiable Appetite

2m 35s

The Dodder is a hunter with an exceptional sense of smell. It moves swiftly, searching for its prey. Smelling a young nettle, it moves towards it and strangles its stem - punchering it and sucking its sap. Having fed, it is then able to multiply. It is a parasite with an insatiable appetite.

Clip

One Sharpshooter Way to Stop an Invasive Plant

2m 20s

Miconia, a plant native to Mexico, grows taller than native Hawaiian plants. A single plant can produce 10 million seeds a year, proliferating rapidly. Unable to land their helicopters, marksmen shoot Miconia plants at the stem with paintballs filled with herbicide while flying. Killing the whole plant without damaging any wild plants.

Clip

The Orchid that Pretends It's A Wasp

3m 38s

The Hammer Orchid does not look like a flower and has no nectar but also needs to attract a pollinator. This plant's strategy is to synchronize with the mating season of the thynnid wasp, attracting males by emitting a similar scent to that of the female. And since the orchid looks similar to the female, the male it attempts to mate with it.

Clip

How Do You Pollinate 40 Million Almond Trees?

2m 33s

Central California is the biggest orchard in the world and almonds are one of its main crops. There are 40 million trees here with 20,000 flowers each, meaning there are billions of flowers in this one location. But there are no pollinators for the job, they were wiped out when the surrounding environment was cleared. So 40 billion bees are trucked in from across the U.S. when the trees bloom.

Clip

Meet the World's Biggest Flower

3m 46s

The Corpse Flower is more than 3 feet across, blooms for only one week, and smells like a rotting... well, corpse! It's a strategy evolved to lure carrion flies.

Clip

How Leaf Cutter Ants Feed a Killer Fungus

3m 44s

Leaf Cutter ants deliver thousands of pieces of plant matter to a fungus underground in order to grow food. See how plants fight back - with chemical warfare