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Time English (United States) Language 2 Action

00:00

Psst. Hey.

00:02

Wanna know a secret?

00:04

Right now, all around you, plants are gossiping.

00:10

In chemical whispers, they’re passing notes through underground roots.

00:14

Notes about potential predators that linger nearby,

00:17

or how cool it would be if they all coordinated

00:20

so an entire orchard ripened in unison.

00:23

Plants are also reacting—

00:26

growing and moving in response to gravity, touch, and light.

00:31

Traveling via fuzz and feathers.

00:34

And fighting back against those predators I mentioned.

00:38

But despite all that action,

00:40

we humans have a funny way of…

00:43

not noticing plants at all.

00:46

We let them fade into the background,

00:48

even though they’re essential to our survival…

00:51

and just really freaking cool!

00:53

Hi, I’m Alexis, and this is Crash Course Botany

00:58

—the study of plants,

00:59

which I’ve been doing since the first time I

01:01

laid my little baby hands on a leaf

01:04

and shoved it into my mouth. [Alexis giggles]

01:06

Hey, I was learning!

01:08

And I still am!

01:09

You might know me from my TikTok,

01:11

where I yell about plants

01:13

and show you how to make them into delicious meals.

01:16

Or you might have seen my TED Talk,

01:18

where I made some tasty chips from kelp

01:21

that I foraged myself

01:23

—and also discussed the environmental impacts of the agricultural industry.

01:27

I’ve also been an outdoor educator,

01:30

helping others see how truly exciting and invigorating plants are.

01:34

The more I tune into plants,

01:36

the more a rich, dramatic world unfolds all around me.

01:40

And over the next fifteen episodes,

01:42

I can’t wait to show it to you.

01:44

We’ll explore what separates plants from other living things

01:47

—and what we have in common.

01:49

We’ll uncover how plants work,

01:51

from their itsy-bitsy cells,

01:53

to their water-absorbing roots.

01:55

And we’ll learn how the very first plants evolved,

01:59

kicked off by a weird event where a microbe got a little hangry.

02:03

We’ll also see how changes in genes across millennia

02:06

sparked the whole wild kaleidoscope of plant life

02:10

—every tomato, every tree, every stinky corpse flower.

02:15

And we’ll explore how people

02:17

have manipulated plants’ genes in increasingly precise ways

02:21

—influencing not just the plants’ future, but our own.

02:25

Along the way,

02:26

we’ll learn why plants are such a life-giving,

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ecosystem-powering, society-shaping big deal.

02:34

And we know just how big a deal

02:38

thanks to knowledge gleaned by Indigenous cultures

02:41

and Western science alike.

02:43

We’ll introduce you to some amazing stories of discovery

02:47

to see how botanical knowledge has shaped

02:49

— and continues to shape — our world.

02:51

So join us!

02:52

And get ready.

02:53

You won’t be-leaf what secrets plants are hiding.

02:58

Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course Botany

03:01

which was filmed at the Damir Ferizović Studio

03:04

and made in partnership with PBS Digital Studios and Nature.

03:07

If you want to help keep Crash Course free for everyone, forever,

03:11

you can join our community on Patreon.

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