In Defense of Plants Podcast

Feb 02 2025 100 ep. 50 mins 15k

In Defense of Plants Podcast artwork

Plants are everything. They are also incredibly interesting. From the smallest duckweed to the tallest redwood, the botanical world is full of wonder. Tune in for a podcast celebrating everything botany.

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Ep. 511 - Paw Paw Randomness

Feb 02 2025 55 mins

Paw paw (Asimina triloba) is a charismatic and special species. It is the most northerly growing member of a mostly tropical family. It also has considerable influence on its herbaceous neighbors. Join me and PhD student Anna Wassel as we explore the random world of pawpaw and understory herb community assembly. This episode was produced in part by Shad, Maddie, Owen, Linda, Alana,

Ep. 510 - Epiphytes & Phorophytes

Jan 26 2025 58 mins

Mosses, liverworts, and lichens live in a world of their own. Not unlike the trees they grow on, these tiny organisms must play out the dramas of obtaining the water, nutrients, and light they need to survive, they are just doing so on a much smaller scale. At the same time, they are supporting their own food webs that scale far bigger than their own lives. Join me and Dr. Greg McG

Ep. 509 - The Power of Biotic Resistance

Jan 19 2025 51 mins

Invasive species reduce native biodiversity and hinder an ecosystem's ability to support life, including our own. Managing invasive species can be very challenging, but that doesn't intimidate people like Dr. Mike Schuster. Learn how he and his colleagues are using the ecological principal of biotic resistance to study how some native plants such as rye grasses (genus Elymus) can h

Ep. 508 - The Cashew Family Revisited

Jan 12 2025 50 mins

What do cashews (Anacardium spp.), mangoes (Mangifera spp.), pistachios (Pistacia spp.), and poison ivy (Toxicodendron spp.) have in common? They are all members of the family Anacardiaceae! Revisit this conversation with Executive Director at the United States Botanic Garden, Dr. Susan Pell, who has devoted her career to understanding this incredible and surprisingly diverse famil

Ep. 507 - The Beginning Revisited

Jan 05 2025 14 mins

January 2025 marks the 10 year anniversary (!!!) of the In Defense of Plants Podcast. To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to revisit the first episode of the podcast. Travel back a decade to a tiny, old Buffalo NY apartment where a young and naive Matt waxes poetic about his love for jewel orchids (Ludisia discolor) as a blizzard rages outside. This episode was produced in part

Ep. 506 - The Digital Future of Herbaria

The herbarium world is a fascinating one. These botanical repositories are goldmines of data and help us understand the present by looking at the past. But what kind of future questions can herbaria help solve? Experts say the opportunities are endless, but we will need new technologies to take full advantage. Join me and Curator and Director of the Herbarium at Missouri Botanical

Ep. 505 - Leave the Dang Leaves!

Dec 22 2024 48 mins

Leave the leaves! It is a phrase you hear a lot these days, but why is it so important to keep leaves and other plant debris on your landscape? These are the questions that drive Dr. Max Ferlato. Leaf litter and other plant debris provides vitally important habitat for myriad organisms including species important for pollination and pest control. Moreover, a little bit of leaf litt

Ep. 504 - The Genetic Mysteries of Creosote Bush

Dec 15 2024 59 mins

What is a species? On the surface, this seems like an easy question to answer. Get a bunch of biologists in the room together and you will quickly see it can be a bit of a loaded question. Questions like this are what drive scientists like Dr. Robert Laport. By looking at genome duplication events in plants like creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), he and his lab are curious how vast

Ep. 503 - Pollen Specialization

Bees run the gamut from generalists to specialists. Whereas the generalists visit a variety of plants for the resources they need, many specialists exist on a single species. Such is the case for at least 20 different bees living in Southwestern North America who specialize on the pollen of the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). In geologic terms, creosote is a relative newcomer to

Ep. 502 - Unearthing the Mysteries of Underground Storage Organs

Tubers, corms, taproots, bulbs... There are many different kinds of underground storage organs in the plant world. Moreover, they form from many different kinds of plant tissues. This begs the question, why are there so many variations on the theme of energy storage? Join me and Dr. Carrie Tribble as we explore phylogenetic and trait-based approaches to understanding the evolution