Original air date: 15 February 1995
Above is a graphical presentation of a timeline of the programme, below is a more detailed text version
Selected material
Plants of the Arctic
Algae inside a rock
The algae are so tiny they can fit among the grains of stone
Lichen covering rocks
Flowers in the Arctic
Attenborough pointing at a tiny flowering plant and (right) that plant in close-up
And a miniature garden appearing in the shelter of stones
Flowers sheltering among the rocks
A willow (tree) lying on the ground, stretching almost as far horizontally as the more southerly relatives do vertically
Final words (the long version): “Plants, whether very simple or highly complex, like these growing in the rainforest along the coast of tropical Australia, have colonised the whole planet. They live not only in such favourable environments as these but on frozen rocks and gravels of the polar lands and in the searingly hot sands of the deserts. They’ve developed ways of surviving fire and hurricanes. They can withstand the attacks of animals and even, on occasion, find ways of eating animals themselves …
“But one thing plants can’t withstand, and that’s the determined onslaught of humans. Ever since we arrived on this planet as a species, we’ve cut them down, dug them up, burnt them and poisoned them. Today we’re doing so on a greater scale than ever. Even this small, precious patch of rainforest in northern Queensland is under threat. We destroy plants at our peril. Neither we nor any other animal can survive without them. The time has now come for us to cherish our green inheritance, not to pillage it. For without it, we will surely perish.”