Plants are delicious, nutritious, and full of energy, so they’re prime targets for all sorts of herbivores, parasites, and pathogens. But plants aren’t just sitting passively accepting attacks, they use a variety of strategies to defend themselves, from the frustrating to the fatal. This episode, we’re joined by our favorite paleobotanist, Aly Baumgartner, to discuss the many ways plants defend themselves – physically, chemically, and beyond – and the fascinating evolutionary history of plant defenses and their offenders.
In the news: deep-sea fish, Wollemi pines, learning birds, and plant technology.






Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:06:55
Main discussion, Part 1: 00:38:15
Main discussion, Part 2: 01:12:25
Patron question: 01:48:10






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The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.
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Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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