Monday, June 6, 2011

Botany - A Blooming History

This Tuesday sees a new season of programmes tracing the history of botany kick off on BBC 4.

The centerpiece of the season is a three-part series: Botany- A Blooming History.

Presented by Timothy Walker, director of Oxford University Botanic Gardens, the series will reveal how a band of pioneers came to understand the mysteries of the plant kingdom and in doing so, helped to unlock the secrets of the natural world.

A Blooming History, will tell the story of how we came to understand the natural order of the plant world and how the quest to discover how plants grow uncovered the secret to life on the planet.

The series features the latest plant science and hows how botanists today are at the forefront of advances to fight disease, provide radical new forms of renewable energy and help feed the world's growing population.

During a journey which will take in the likes of Carl Linnaeus, who laid the groundwork for how we name all living creatures; Thomas Fairchild, the nurseryman who produced the first man-made hybrid and William Bateson, the botanist who coined the term 'genetics', Timothy Walker will show how plants are the centre of modern science.

Along with the three-part series, there is a supporting cast of three one-off documentaries: Apples - British to the Core will look at how Britain has helped shape the apple; Wonderful Weeds aims to look at how some of what we call 'weeds' are more useful than we give them credit for; Hidcote will look at the most influential British garden of the 20th century.

Botany: A Blooming History starts on BBC4 on Tuesday June 7th at 9pm.

(Source: BBC Press Office)

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