Ask Somerset’s Plants

Podcast 1: Quantock Hills Feral Practice and Marcus Coates are in conversation with Plantlife ecologist Dr Alison Smith.

Download from Soundcloud HERE for offline listening

 

Recording took place at Holford Coombe, part of the Quantock Hills Nature Reserve.

Questions addressed and plants discussed:

Anonymous – How can we best engage with others, when we see so many polarising views and entrenched positions. How can we put aside differences to achieve something genuinely shared and mutually enriching together? Plants: Lichens, including Witches Whiskers and Barnacle lichens.

Kerry Grant – In the light of recent leadership contests, in which we find ourselves confronting a scenario where both candidates are seriously flawed, how would the plants select the best leader? Plants: Rhododendron, Laurel, Silver Birch, Ivy.

Anonymous – Can the stars light the sky forever? Plants: Polypody Ferns, Mosses

 

Podcast 2: The Levels Feral Practice and Marcus Coates are in conversation with plant scientist Dr Nigel Chaffey and local wildlife guide Deon Warner.

Download from Soundcloud HERE for offline listening

 

Recording took place at Shapwick Heath and West Sedgemoor, on the Somerset Levels.

Questions addressed and plants discussed:

Jenny Melling – How can I deal with the seeming impossibility of knowing the whole truth? Plants: plant perceptions, Oak tree, mycorrhizal fungi, woodland connectivity.

Anonymous – I am an eighteen-stone woman. I have been this weight for most of my adult life. I’ve repeatedly tried diets, but to no avail. What would the plants suggest I do? Plants: photosynthesis, Eyebright, Sundew, Bladderwort.

Luminara – How can I stay in my tenderness, as I navigate my way in a competitive and precarious career? Plants: Reed Mace.

Anonymous – Can the plants explain, considering the supposed wisdom of hindsight, how we are seeing a new rise of extremist views, and can they advise on a positive response? Plants: Common Dock

 

Podcast 3: Cheddar Feral Practice and Marcus Coates are in conversation with botanist Liz McDonnell

Download from Soundcloud HERE for offline listening

 

Recording took place in Kings Wood and in various locations in Cheddar Gorge.

Questions addressed and plants discussed:

Guinevere King – How do I accept my uniqueness without berating myself for being so different to everyone else? Plants: Autumn Crocus (Naked Ladies), Cheddar Whitebeam.

Anonymous – In earlier days when I had no money, I thought having some would be enough to keep me happy. Now I have money, property and good fortune. I am extremely happy, but I still seek to add to my assets in the late summer of my life. What is it about the human species that keeps us striving? Plants: Wild Garlic, Ancient Lime trees.

Pennie Elfick – Fleeting ideas are often the most creative, but how to capture them and make them stand still, that is the question. Plants: Wood Avens.

 

 

Ask Somerset’s Plants brings the knowledge of local flora to bear on our everyday human problems and dilemmas.

Ask Somerset’s Plants is steered by the questions that Somerset audiences posed. Not questions about nature or plants, as you might expect, but about people’s own lives and human society, questions that vary from the political and societal to the deeply personal. Each walk and conversation visits plants in some of Somerset’s diverse and specialised habitats, and is guided by the questions we received.

Ask Somerset’s Plants was commissioned by Somerset Art Works.