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NATURE
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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NatureÌýoffersÌýa window on global natural history, providing a unique insight into the natural world, the environment, and the magnificent creatures that inhabit it.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN Ìý30 min |
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PRESENTER |
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"Nature is full of surprises, so the programme can investigate fascinating and challenging areas in
our relations with the natural world without being too technical or preachy. My job is brilliant because, as a link between the listener and the subject, I can discover new information and ideas which help people make up their own minds on important issues."
Paul Evans |
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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The Life of Ferns
Paul Evans meets one of the rarest and most beautiful plants he's seen in the British Isles, as he explores the history of ferns in Britain.
Primitive enough to have been dinosaur salad, these graceful plants were avidly collected in the 19th Century in what social historian and naturalist David Allen describes as the "Great Victorian Fern Craze".
The desire to own the ferns led to their eradication in some sites, but even the most sought-after plants hung on in their most remote locations.
Paul accompanies fern expert Fred Rumsey into a wintry Welsh waterfall to see the Killarney Fern, once almost collected into extinction.Ìý Recent findings have revealed that this is a plant with a trick or two up its sleeve.
The fern craze died out in the late 1800s, but now botanists are studying ferns with new vigour.Ìý
At London's Natural History Museum, Keeper of Botany Professor Johannes Vogel explains how ferns can evolve rapidly into new species and have a rampant sexuality - something which the Victorians would surely not have approved of. |
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