BBC.The.Green.Planet.2of5.Water.Worlds.1080p.HDTV.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng Subtitles

At 00:00:34,000, Character said: Plants cover much of the
land surface of our planet.

2
At 00:00:38,440, Character said: But there is another
extraordinary green world

3
At 00:00:42,880, Character said: that is often hidden from us.

4
At 00:00:58,320, Character said: It's one where plants
have overcome huge challenges

5
At 00:01:01,880, Character said: in order to survive.

6
At 00:01:11,880, Character said: The world of fresh water.

7
At 00:01:28,840, Character said: At first sight, a lake like this
would seem to have everything

8
At 00:01:34,640, Character said: that life needs in order to thrive.

9
At 00:01:37,920, Character said: Clear, oxygen-rich water,

10
At 00:01:41,400, Character said: plenty of dissolved nutrients
and minerals

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At 00:01:44,600, Character said: and lots of sunlight.

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At 00:01:47,160, Character said: But, in fact, life in fresh water

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At 00:01:51,800, Character said: presents plants with huge problems.

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At 00:01:57,720, Character said: To succeed, plants have had to
abandon many of the adaptations

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At 00:02:03,320, Character said: that served them so well on land

16
At 00:02:06,360, Character said: and evolve something
quite new and, doing that,

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At 00:02:10,440, Character said: they have created some of the most
beautiful and bizarre

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At 00:02:15,440, Character said: and important habitats on Earth.

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At 00:02:23,840, Character said: There are few places where
it's more difficult to make

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At 00:02:27,480, Character said: a permanent home than a freshwater
torrent like this one.

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At 00:02:51,480, Character said: Violent currents
drip across the riverbed,

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At 00:02:56,880, Character said: scouring it clean...

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At 00:03:03,280, Character said: ..whipping land plants
from their margins

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At 00:03:07,680, Character said: and drowning them.

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At 00:03:13,000, Character said: How could any plant survive
in a place like this?

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At 00:03:28,920, Character said: Yet, even here, some do manage to,

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At 00:03:32,480, Character said: quite literally, hold on.

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At 00:03:39,800, Character said: They can grasp the bare rock
with remarkable strength.

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At 00:03:50,360, Character said: This ability allows plants to thrive

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At 00:03:52,840, Character said: in these otherwise
hostile environments.

31
At 00:04:01,280, Character said: This is the Cano Cristales
river in Colombia.

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At 00:04:21,280, Character said: These plants are red Macarenia,

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At 00:04:24,520, Character said: sometimes called the
Orchid of the Falls.

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At 00:04:38,120, Character said: They cling to the riverbed,
not with their roots,

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At 00:04:41,560, Character said: but with their stems, glued
to the rock surface by one

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At 00:04:46,040, Character said: of the most powerful
adhesives in nature.

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At 00:04:56,160, Character said: The rock itself will break

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At 00:04:58,280, Character said: before these anchors
lose their grip.

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At 00:05:11,200, Character said: These feathery filaments
are their modified leaves,

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At 00:05:15,680, Character said: and they do what roots normally do -

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At 00:05:18,600, Character said: gather the minerals and
nutrients they need

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At 00:05:21,440, Character said: that are dissolved in the water.

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At 00:05:29,320, Character said: With such spectacular colours,
it's hardly surprising

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At 00:05:33,360, Character said: that the Cano Cristales
is sometimes called

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At 00:05:37,000, Character said: the most beautiful river on Earth.

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At 00:05:45,960, Character said: But being rooted to the spot
is not always the best strategy

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At 00:05:49,960, Character said: for living in a water world.

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At 00:05:55,280, Character said: This is a water lettuce,

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At 00:05:58,560, Character said: and it has some
remarkable adaptations.

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At 00:06:03,400, Character said: Its roots hang free,

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At 00:06:06,840, Character said: so it's not anchored to the ground,

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At 00:06:09,880, Character said: and its leaves are thick and spongy

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At 00:06:13,360, Character said: and covered in fine hairs.

54
At 00:06:16,120, Character said: So the plant itself
is more or less unsinkable.

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At 00:06:27,920, Character said: This combination of characteristics
enable the water lettuce

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At 00:06:32,000, Character said: to do something that almost
no land plant can do.

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At 00:06:36,240, Character said: It can travel.

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At 00:06:41,600, Character said: It is an ability that
becomes invaluable when,

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At 00:06:45,800, Character said: during the wet season, flooded
rivers become great highways,

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At 00:06:49,680, Character said: as they do here in South America.

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At 00:06:58,080, Character said: This is the largest inland
water world on Earth.

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At 00:07:02,080, Character said: The Pantanal.

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At 00:07:04,960, Character said: For a few months every year,
it provides water plants

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At 00:07:09,320, Character said: with ideal conditions,

65
At 00:07:12,040, Character said: but, all too soon,
it becomes a battleground.

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At 00:07:25,640, Character said: Plants are racing to claim
their space on the surface.

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At 00:07:31,400, Character said: The water lettuce rapidly expands
its network of hanging roots

68
At 00:07:35,840, Character said: so that it starts
absorbing nutrients

69
At 00:07:38,280, Character said: before other competitors arrive.

70
At 00:07:57,840, Character said: Water hyacinth appears.

71
At 00:08:03,480, Character said: Its leaves are carried
on stalks filled with air

72
At 00:08:08,160, Character said: that also make it
virtually unsinkable.

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At 00:08:16,440, Character said: The race for space intensifies.

74
At 00:08:21,920, Character said: A new competitor arrives, Ludwigia.

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At 00:08:25,680, Character said: It spreads by developing
a chain of tiny rafts.

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At 00:08:31,320, Character said: And jostles for space with
the densely packed leaves

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At 00:08:34,520, Character said: of mosaic plants.

78
At 00:08:43,440, Character said: All are racing to claim
as much sunlight as possible.

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At 00:08:57,720, Character said: They flower quickly before
the floodwaters recede.

80
At 00:09:12,920, Character said: And these surface dwellers
also have competitors.

81
At 00:09:19,120, Character said: Including one that has been
waiting in the depths

82
At 00:09:22,240, Character said: and is now stirring.

83
At 00:09:35,080, Character said: It's a monster.

84
At 00:10:05,200, Character said: It's well armed.

85
At 00:10:22,360, Character said: It clears space for itself

86
At 00:10:27,040, Character said: by wielding one of its buds.

87
At 00:10:30,680, Character said: Like a club.

88
At 00:10:38,240, Character said: And now it dominates the surface.

89
At 00:11:01,200, Character said: This is a leaf of the
giant water lily.

90
At 00:11:25,960, Character said: It expands by over
20 centimetres a day

91
At 00:11:29,800, Character said: and eventually measures

92
At 00:11:31,520, Character said: more than two metres across.

93
At 00:11:38,560, Character said: Its immense leaves are supported
by a network of air-filled struts

94
At 00:11:43,800, Character said: and protected by spines
two centimetres long.

95
At 00:11:52,080, Character said: The leaves float high in the water
and their surfaces are dotted

96
At 00:11:56,240, Character said: with tiny holes, drains, that
help them ensure that rainwater

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At 00:12:01,080, Character said: doesn't accumulate and sink them.

98
At 00:12:17,640, Character said: Nutrients from the fertile mud
below are carried up by tubes

99
At 00:12:22,400, Character said: in its stem to fuel
the leaf's expansion.

100
At 00:12:34,040, Character said: Over the next few months,
the lily will produce

101
At 00:12:37,520, Character said: some 40 or so of these
gigantic leaves.

102
At 00:12:50,480, Character said: And as each one reaches the surface
and expands, more and more light

103
At 00:12:55,680, Character said: is taken from those plants
that are trying to grow beneath.

104
At 00:13:12,280, Character said: Competitors are pushed aside.

105
At 00:13:38,800, Character said: Some are crushed,

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At 00:13:41,600, Character said: or skewered.

107
At 00:14:20,640, Character said: Eventually, its immense
leaves press their margins

108
At 00:14:24,640, Character said: against one another,

109
At 00:14:26,880, Character said: totally cutting off the light
from the plants beneath them.

110
At 00:14:33,640, Character said: The battle is over.

111
At 00:14:36,680, Character said: And victory is total.

112
At 00:14:58,680, Character said: The frozen water world of
Lake Akan in northern Japan.

113
At 00:15:06,960, Character said: Home to one of the strangest
and most primitive of plants.

114
At 00:15:14,520, Character said: It's an alga, like those that appear
so mysteriously in our ponds.

115
At 00:15:23,840, Character said: But this one is truly extraordinary.

116
At 00:15:33,400, Character said: Each spring, the melting ice
releases soft, velvety balls

117
At 00:15:38,160, Character said: of interwoven threads
called Marimos.

118
At 00:15:46,760, Character said: This one is small.

119
At 00:15:48,840, Character said: No bigger than a walnut.

120
At 00:15:52,200, Character said: But there are lots of them here.

121
At 00:16:00,440, Character said: They attract the attention
of visiting whooper swans.

122
At 00:16:33,120, Character said: But there is one way for the
Marimo to escape from the danger,

123
At 00:16:38,120, Character said: and it depends on a change
in the weather.

124
At 00:16:45,120, Character said: Fortunately, in the spring,
winds sweep across the lake...

125
At 00:16:52,120, Character said: ..creating currents that carry some
of the Marimos beyond the reach

126
At 00:16:57,440, Character said: of hungry swans....