Green Kingdom: The Family History of Plants | A talk with Ben Dark

Most of life on Earth is plant and yet the half a million species alive today are only a sliver of those that have ever existed. In this talk, historian, broadcaster and former head gardener Ben Dark tells the epic story of the plant kingdom: from the arrival of the first plants on land 484 million years ago, through twelve thousand years buried under ice, to the staggering diversity of flora we know today.

Through the stories of sixteen plant families, from humble bog moss to the extraordinary adaptations of the orchid, Dark traces how plants colonised land, invented wood, formed seeds and ultimately came to dominate the planet. Expect encounters with duckweed (the only plant that migrates with the seasons), desert succulents that live for millennia, and the secret behind the iridescence of buttercups, alongside the adventurers, poets and scientists who pieced the story together.