BBC Earth Episode Three - ‘Green’

It’s all about plant & fungi symbioses and the development of soil as we know it.

(The Trailer and Streaming options for the UK and the US below. However, I checked it out as a DVD from my library. You might be able to do the same.)

The video is awesome, and I hope you can watch it, but here’s a synopsis:

When plants first emerged from the sea, they were tiny things that had to stay near water. But they formed symbiotic relationships with fungi, and then as now, the plants provided the fungi with some of the carbs they made through photosynthesis. And the fungi provided the plants with water and minerals. This relationship allowed the plants to gradually move further away from the natural wet zones along the coast and waterways, and to grow ever larger.

Soil as we know it, did not begin to develop until after creatures followed the plants out of the sea. Life giving soil, is a process that has huge contributions from the plants and fungi themselves, but also incorporates poop from living creatures and their spent bodies. Beneficial bacteria & the fungi and creatures that specialize in decomposition work together to break down and mix the organic matter with minerals weathering from rock and stone. Nearly every ecosystem on earth depends on this process, and we depend on it too.

(In the film, what we usually call mycelium is referred to as hyphae. It’s a matter of nuance but they basically mean the same thing, at least in the context of the film.)

Available as a DVD and for streaming.

The trailer for the full season is found here: youtube.com/watch?v=GR8…

Screenshot of the DVD from the HMV store, which lists quite a few options for purchase or streaming (however the top pic is Amazon, and they don’t actually seem to have it): hmv.com/store/film-tv/d…

US Streaming options can be found here: bing.com/ck/a?p=07a6e49…

And if you are in the UK, you can stream from here: