In Defense of Plants Podcast
Plants are everything. They are also incredibly interesting. From the smallest duckweed to the tallest redwood, the botanical world is full of wonder. Tune in for a podcast celebrating everything botany.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 52 minutes
- Episodes
- 301
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
Ep. 481 - Borderlands Restoration in Action
Deserts are difficult places for any organism to survive, let alone plants. Despite the challenges, rich a unique floras have evolved in deserts all over the world which support myriad other forms of…
01:00:38 |
Sun 07 Jul 2024
Ep. 480 - Understanding Bark Beetles
Bark beetles may be small, but they can have major impacts on forests around the globe. It may be easy to think of these insects as always a bad thing, but what if they aren't? Simple stories rarely …
00:50:41 |
Sun 30 Jun 2024
Ep. 479 - Insights into Nightshade Defenses
Plants cannot run away from the herbivores that eat them, therefore plants have evolved numerous strategies to defend themselves from being consumed. Plant defenses are as varied as the plant kingdom…
01:08:00 |
Sun 23 Jun 2024
Ep. 478 - Milkweed Defense De-Escalation
Plant defense compounds are great for the plants that produce them as they can ward off herbivore attacks. But what happens when a group of specialists evolves a way to utilize said compounds? Such i…
01:01:08 |
Sun 16 Jun 2024
Ep. 477 - Juncus, What a Rush!
Join Chief Botanist for NatureServe Wes Knapp and me as we take a deep dive into an all-too-often overlooked group of plants - the rushes (genus Juncus). Rushes are fascinating and beautiful plants w…
00:53:45 |
Sun 09 Jun 2024
Ep. 476 - Ashes, Roses, and the Great Southern Brood
Conservation Biologist Sara Johnson returns to the podcast to talk about some of the botanical rabbit holes we have been exploring in recent weeks. We discuss ash (Fraxinus spp.) and rose (Rosa spp.)…
00:29:26 |
Sun 02 Jun 2024
Ep. 475 - Island Restoration Needs Plants
Islands are hotbeds for unique biodiversity. Strange and unique island plants form the foundation of strange and unique ecosystems. Sadly, the human hand has not been kind to Earth's island ecosystem…
00:47:26 |
Sun 26 May 2024
Ep. 474 - Untangling Cryptic Diversity
Sometimes the differences between species are vast (e.g., a maple and an oak) but other times they are subtle to the point of requiring a trained eye and essentially learning a new language. So-calle…
00:58:31 |
Sun 19 May 2024
Ep. 473 - Root Evolution Revisited
There is no denying that roots are one of the most important organs on a plant. However, unless its an epiphyte, root activity takes place underground, largely out of site and out of mind. This has n…
00:39:49 |
Sun 12 May 2024
Ep. 472 - Snorkelwort & Friends are X-Treme!
Any organism that ephemeral gravel puddles home must be ready to deal with extremes. That is what makes snorkelwort (Gratiola amphiantha) and its aquatic neighbors so darn cool. It's what also makes …
00:53:15 |
Sun 05 May 2024
Ep. 471 - Chasing Rare Oaks
Boynton/Alabama sandstone (Quercus boyntonii) and Georgia oaks (Q. georgiana) are among the rarest oaks in North America and yet we know so little about them. This paucity of knowledge can make conse…
00:44:52 |
Sun 28 Apr 2024
Ep. 470 - Rethinking Water Lettuce
Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) has long been maligned for its invasive tendencies. This floating aquatic aroid grows fast and responds well to poor water quality, and because of this, states like …
00:51:05 |
Sun 21 Apr 2024
Ep. 469 - Blue Butterworts & Friends
The Southeast is one of North America's biodiversity hotspots. Any trip through this region will be rewarded with lots of botanical splendor if you know where to look. Join Conservation Biologist Sar…
00:42:54 |
Sun 14 Apr 2024
Ep. 468 - Plants, Structure, and Habitat
I have said it before, and I will say it again: plants ARE habitat. Nowhere is this fact more apparent than in the field of wildlife ecology. From food to shelter, one simply can't understand the inn…
00:41:25 |
Sun 07 Apr 2024
Ep. 467 - Roots & the Struggle for Nutrients
Competition for nutrients is a major driver of plant evolution, especially in nutrient-poor soils. As such, plants have evolved myriad ways of getting a "root up" on the competition. Dr. Jim Dalling …
00:55:09 |
Sun 31 Mar 2024
Ep. 466 - Fire in the Mountains
The Appalachian region may not readily seem like a fire-prone region, but parts of it certainly are. Fire can be an important tool in sustaining biodiversity, but modern understanding of its role is …
00:48:57 |
Sun 24 Mar 2024
Ep. 465 - Studying Ancient Wildfires
Wildfires are familiar to those living on Earth today, but what about in the past? How does one go about studying ancient wildfires through deep time? Some of the answers lie in coal deposits. Join m…
00:52:12 |
Sun 17 Mar 2024
Ep. 464 - Back from the Brink
Good news is hard to come by in the world of plant conservation, but it is out there! Take, for instance, some recent examples on Santa Cruz Island in which the recovery of a handful of endangered pl…
00:53:43 |
Sun 10 Mar 2024
Ep. 463 - Digitizing an Extinct Tree
How does one breath life into an extinct tree only known from fossils? There are a lot of answers to this question, but my guest today decided to go digital. Tim Stonesifer is the Assistant Director …
00:38:13 |
Sun 03 Mar 2024
Ep. 462 - Resurrecting an Ancient Toilet Brush Tree
Fossil hunting is like playing the lottery, your odds of hitting big are infinitesimal, but it can happen. Such was the case for Dr. Bob Gastaldo and colleagues when they unearthed the remains of San…
00:55:10 |
Sun 25 Feb 2024
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