In our final Plant People episode of Season 3, we explore forests of a different sort—those that live beneath the ocean’s waves. Along many of the world’s coastlines, kelp forests offer food and shelter for a wide variety of animal species among their countless waving fronds of seaweed, while protecting our coasts from erosion and even benefiting our economy. Listen in as host Jennifer Bernstein, CEO & The William C. Steere President of NYBG, is joined by Dr. April Ridlon of the Monterey Bay Aquarium to discuss the vast importance of kelp forests and the ways humans have thrown their environment off balance.

On this episode of Plant People, host Jennifer Bernstein—CEO and The William C. Steere Senior President of NYBG—joins Dr. Dennis Stevenson, previously NYBG’s Vice President for Botanical Science, to explore some of our planet’s oldest plants. At least as far back as 200 million years ago, cycads grew in abundance—and at the peak of their distribution, they even fed the dinosaurs. These so-called “living fossils” have changed little since then, yet today, they face their greatest threats in poaching, habitat destruction, and climate change. To preserve their future will require a team effort.

On this episode of Plant People, host Jennifer Bernstein—CEO and The William C. Steere Senior President of NYBG, joins Vanessa Callahan of Denver Botanic Gardens and Brie Langley of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew to chat about one of the plant world’s most gargantuan figures: the giant water lily. From its unique leaf structure, which allows its pads to hold well over 100 pounds in some cases, to the 10-foot diameter that some Amazonian specimens can achieve, these larger-than-life plants are some of our planet’s most fascinating lifeforms.

In this episode of Plant People, host Jennifer Bernstein, CEO and The William C. Steere Sr. President of NYBG, sits down with Professor Pathmanathan Umaharan, Director of the Cocoa Research Centre at the University of the West Indies, to talk chocolate. Together they explore the ancient history of cacao tree cultivation, dating at least as far back as the Olmec civilization in what is now Mexico. Today, crops of cacao and the many types of chocolate they produce face threats in climate change and plant diseases, creating serious challenges for the future of this important food.

In this episode, we’re joined by Anya Stansell, Western New York Small Fruits Specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension, to discuss the largest fruit native to the United States—one that you may never have heard of. Sometimes called a Custard Apple, the Pawpaw grows throughout much of the eastern wilderness, and was long a staple in many Indigenous diets. So why is it so obscure to most of us today? Listen in as host Jennifer Bernstein, CEO and the William C. Steere Sr. President of the New York Botanical Garden, joins Anya to uncover the story of this unique fruit.

UPDATE: While squash are botanically considered a fruit, the large ones are a result of domestication and human selection. Pawpaw is the largest wild fruit native to the United States, and squash is the largest native only if you include domesticated crops.

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Rob Naczi, Arthur J. Cronquist Curator of North American Botany at the New York Botanical Garden. Listen in as he and host Jennifer Bernstein, NYBG President and CEO, discuss pitcher plants—carnivorous plants with unique leaves that function as traps for insects. They might look exotic, but there’s even a species native to New York. In summer, you can find them growing alongside the boardwalk here in the Native Plant Garden! Come explore why these important plants still have much to teach us, and the environmental threats they currently face.

In this episode we’re joined by Dr. Melissa Abdo, a Floridian whose work in conservation has brought her face to face with countless captivating yet threatened plants in the swamps of the southeast—including the ghost orchid. Long coveted by poachers, and central to the plot of author Susan Orlean’s bestselling book, The Orchid Thief, this ethereal flower faces an uncertain future, inspiring calls for its protection under the Endangered Species Act. Join us as we dive into this orchid’s story, one of passion and even obsession.

In this week’s episode of Plant People, Michael Goergen of The American Chestnut Foundation joins us to discuss the tragic history—and hopeful future—of one of North America’s most iconic trees.

In the early 20th century, chestnut blight arrived in North America, a parasitic fungus that went on to kill an estimated four billion American chestnut trees. But more than a century later, work is underway to cultivate a chestnut tree that can resist the fungus—and thrive doing it.