Diversity saves and variation rocks! The Botany of Desire is a PBS documentary based on Michael Pollan's book with the same name.

Pollan explores the relationship between humans and four plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes . All of these plants have something we desire: sweetness, beauty, the power to intoxicate and the ability to feed our bellies.  Humans work hard for these plants, therefore the plants flourish and give us more of what we want.

Kate Rose

Kate Rose

Super-duper sexual frustration is what makes the most psychoactive weed! Female marijuana plants produce a sticky substance called THC so they can catch the pollen the male plants produce and make babies (seeds). THC also produces the pot high in humans. Savvy pot growers figured out how to trick the female plants into producing a lot more THC by separating the male plants from the females. Not totally, but just keeping them far enough away so the females have to work extra hard to get it. They kick into overdrive and produce extra-potent, sticky, sexy THC to make themselves more desirable and capable of catching the males' pollen. The more THC, the more of the box of Bugles you eat.

And you will learn an overly sweet apple is boring and lacks dimension, which I see as a metaphor for some humans. Watch it! 

This is the trailer. You can watch the whole show here.

Watch Preview Trailer on PBS. See more from Botany of Desire.

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AuthorKate Rose
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