> Hi all,
>
> David Attenborough has a new (for us, anyway) documentary called "The Private
> Life of Plants". There's a ~2 page article/review of it in the latest
> "Green Guide" (the TV liftout of "The Age" newspaper) with a couple of nice
> photos:
> * Amorphophallus titanum (DA calls it "a very rude-looking plant")
> which has the world's largest flower (2 metres across, 3 metres high!!) and
Utterly bizarre, though technically an inflorescence rather than an
individual flower (Oooohh... pedant :)
> only flowers once every three years, and only lasts for three days.
> * Greenhood orchid flower which has an error in the caption - they
> aren't "green orchid bird traps" (insects maybe)...
>
> According to the review, there will also be "a meat-eating pitcher plant
> equipped with its own, two-litre casserole dish bubbling with a gruesome
> stock of wax and acid" (Nepenthes rajah wouldn't you say?)
Don't miss this one! Get your video ready for it - the timelapse
photography of opening Nepenthes and U. humboldtii creeping from
bromeliad to bromeliad (filmed from inside the tanks!) alone are
breathtaking. I videoed the whole series and bought the book when
it was shown here in the Spring.
You will definitely, definitely not want to miss the two episodes
(2 & 6) with CPs in, and the others are excellent as well.
The replacement of Latin names with the likes of "Sanderson's
bladderwort" and "The phial pitcher", and a couple of very
minor continuity errors that confused Heliamphora and Nepenthes
would be the only possible (very minor,) criticisms, but don't
detract at all from the superb camerawork (I believe including
the first timelapse sequence ever filmed of a Rafflesia flower
opening.)
Happy viewing,
Peter (wishing I had a video digitising board...)