Reproduction in Plants

Reproduction in plants is also not new to us. This time, things were explained to us in much more detail. The introduction of new parts of the flower such as the epicalyx and sepals was just some of the new things. Overall, I would say that the entire topic was not difficult and rather manageable as there was not much heavy content or studying to do.

The one-hour documentary shown (The Private Life of Plants) during lessons was eye opening. While we know that many flowers exist in nature, we are still unsure of the scale of the variety of flowers in nature. The documentary exposed us to many unique flowers that are worth taking a look. At the same time, the vivid images taken by the BBC crew deserve some credit.

I think that we do need to give some recognition to the production crews who took all the images and videos of nature documentaries that we all watch. While they are becoming easily available on youtube, we have not thought how difficult it is to produce a full-length documentary.  BBC has produced quite a few documentaries which are worth taking a look.  

We were handed a mushroom growth pack and told to grow our own mushroom. A worksheet was given to us to track and record the growth of the mushroom, and we had to fill in our reflection on the worksheet. I will not be writing down my reflection here, but to highlight something interesting I did to keep my mushroom alive. Ms Nada mention that the mushroom has to be water regularly, but I knew that was quite impossible in my case since I reach home at about 7 each day and leave at about 6.15. Next, the mushroom does not require lots of water, just some "misting" each time. In view of this, I placed the mushroom under a plant. I was hoping that the water vapour released by the plant would keep it alive and let it grow. True enough, the mushroom did grow. Looks like some creativity does work. However, the mushroom got infected some time later and the entire growth pack has to be disposed off.

External Reading:

Nature documentaries are exceptional when it comes to the stunning images of wildlife and nature. Regarding wildlife, violent scenes of lions eating animals, cheetahs chasing animals are often shown. Often we choose to believe that filmmakers put their life in jeopardy so that we as viewers can get closer to nature.

However, there have been claims that some nature documentaries, particularly those involving animals, have included footage of staged events that appeared to be "natural" but were contrived by the filmmakers or happened in captivity. The most famous example is Walt Disney's White Wilderness (1958) where lemmings were hurled to their deaths but there are examples in modern nature documentaries, such as The Blue Planet (2001). Series producer Alastair Fothergill admitted that around 2% of the whole series was filmed in tanks at aquariums.

In my opinion, nature documentaries would not have any purpose if filmmakers are making the documentary for the sake of making it. Documentaries are meant to enlighten and things are to be kept as authentic as possible. If a documentary is made under a controlled environment, then it would be very misleading to the viewer and instead of enlightening, mislead the viewer even further.

We have to admit that media has the power to influence people’s thinking, and it is important that they stand firm on their integrity and provide what is authentic. To all the filmmakers who maintain their integrity and principle in enlightening people on nature, deserve our applause. Next time, when I watch a nature documentary, it better not be fake….