Hand-drawn illustrations of the world's weirdest plants
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0:02 - 0:04I have a challenge for you.
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0:04 - 0:05The next time you're stuck in traffic,
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0:05 - 0:08take a minute to take a look
at the sea of cars around you. -
0:08 - 0:11How many car companies
do you think you could recognize? -
0:12 - 0:14I'm not even really into cars,
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0:14 - 0:15but I think I'd do fairly well.
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0:16 - 0:17But then look beyond the cars
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0:17 - 0:20to the trees that line
the side of the road. -
0:20 - 0:22How many of those could you identify?
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0:23 - 0:25Probably not as many, right?
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0:26 - 0:28Year upon year,
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0:28 - 0:30we grow further and further
away from nature -
0:30 - 0:33to the point where we have to question:
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0:33 - 0:36What experience of nature
will the next generation have? -
0:36 - 0:39And if that generation lacks
a sort of emotional connection -
0:40 - 0:41with their surroundings,
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0:41 - 0:43then will they bother to fight and save it
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0:43 - 0:45when we need it most?
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0:46 - 0:50My name is Nirupa Rao,
and I'm a botanical artist. -
0:50 - 0:52In short, that means I paint plants,
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0:52 - 0:54usually with watercolor,
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0:54 - 0:58in a way that aims to be not only
aesthetically appealing -
0:58 - 0:59but also scientifically accurate.
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1:00 - 1:03And I'm well aware
that this is quite an odd profession -
1:03 - 1:06for a 21st-century urban Indian --
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1:06 - 1:09some might say outdated
in the age of the camera -- -
1:09 - 1:11but here's how my journey began.
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1:11 - 1:13A few years ago,
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1:13 - 1:17I met two naturalists who work
with the Nature Conservation Foundation: -
1:17 - 1:19Divya Mudappa and T.R. Shankar Raman.
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1:20 - 1:21And now interestingly,
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1:21 - 1:24they actually began their careers
working with animals, -
1:24 - 1:25but they soon came to realize
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1:25 - 1:27that if they were
to protect those animals, -
1:27 - 1:30they'd also have to protect
their habitats -- -
1:30 - 1:31that is, the trees they live off.
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1:32 - 1:34And so they started a rainforest
restoration program -
1:34 - 1:38aimed at growing local trees
that local birds and animals rely on. -
1:39 - 1:42And they were looking to visually
document them in some way, -
1:42 - 1:46but the photographers they approached
came up empty-handed. -
1:46 - 1:50These trees were up to 140 feet tall.
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1:50 - 1:52That's 26 times my height.
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1:53 - 1:56Try capturing giants like that
in a single camera frame. -
1:56 - 1:59Besides, the surrounding greenery
was just too dense -
1:59 - 2:01to clearly isolate a single tree.
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2:02 - 2:06And so together, we decided
to give good old painting a shot. -
2:06 - 2:08And to tell you the truth,
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2:08 - 2:10even when I was standing there
right in front of them, -
2:10 - 2:13it was difficult to see the entire tree.
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2:13 - 2:16So instead I'd study
the buttress up close -
2:16 - 2:20and then climb up the hill to see
its crown rising above the canopy. -
2:21 - 2:23And then with Divya,
and she there as aide, -
2:23 - 2:25we could piece these pieces
of the puzzle together -
2:25 - 2:27into the final painting.
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2:28 - 2:30For a lot of people
who don't know the jungles -
2:30 - 2:32as well as these naturalists,
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2:32 - 2:35these paintings are the only way
that they'll get to see these trees -
2:35 - 2:37in their entirety.
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2:37 - 2:42We were able to document
30 of the region's most iconic species -
2:42 - 2:45along with their fruit, flowers,
seeds and leaves. -
2:45 - 2:48(Applause)
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2:49 - 2:50Through this process,
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2:50 - 2:53the jungles really came alive to me.
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2:53 - 2:56They morphed from this
undifferentiated sea of green -
2:56 - 3:00into individual species
with individual characters. -
3:00 - 3:04And I think a lot of people just tend
to see plants as background scenery, -
3:04 - 3:08assuming that their immobility
makes them uninteresting. -
3:08 - 3:12But I began to see that it is that very
rootedness that makes them fascinating, -
3:13 - 3:16the ingenious ways in which
they adapt and respond -
3:16 - 3:17to threats and opportunities
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3:17 - 3:21on timescales that make
our heads hurt to imagine. -
3:21 - 3:23And I couldn't help but wonder:
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3:23 - 3:25What if I could tell their stories,
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3:25 - 3:26showcase their complexity?
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3:27 - 3:30Perhaps we'd all start to think of plants
a little differently. -
3:30 - 3:34And in fact, in my family, plants
have always been a source of fascination. -
3:34 - 3:36My grand-uncle, Father Cecil Saldanha,
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3:36 - 3:40was the first to document the flora
of our home state of Karnataka -
3:40 - 3:41back in the '60s.
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3:41 - 3:43And my mother has all of these memories
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3:43 - 3:47of being a little girl watching
this entire enterprise unfold. -
3:47 - 3:49And consequently,
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3:49 - 3:52I've come to associate plants
with adventure and discovery -
3:52 - 3:53and excitement.
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3:53 - 3:57And so I knew I didn't just want
to paint roses and sunflowers. -
3:57 - 4:01I wanted to paint the kinds of plants
that botanists like my uncle work with. -
4:02 - 4:04And so I set out to create a book,
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4:04 - 4:07supported by the National
Geographic Society, -
4:07 - 4:11on the weirdest, wackiest
plants we could find -
4:11 - 4:15in one of the most biodiverse
regions in the world: -
4:15 - 4:17India's very own Western Ghats.
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4:18 - 4:21(Applause)
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4:22 - 4:25Take a look at these fantastic
jewel-like sundews. -
4:25 - 4:29They grow in regions where nutrient
content in the soil is poor, -
4:29 - 4:33and so they have a little way
of supplementing their diets. -
4:33 - 4:38They lure, trap and ingest insects
using mucilaginous glands on their leaves. -
4:38 - 4:41The little insects are attracted
to the sweet secretions, -
4:41 - 4:43but once they come in contact,
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4:43 - 4:45they are ensnared and the game is up.
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4:45 - 4:46And you might notice
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4:46 - 4:51that the sundews very cleverly hold
their flowers on tall, thin stems -
4:51 - 4:53high above their murderous leaves
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4:53 - 4:55to avoid trapping potential pollinators.
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4:56 - 4:59Further inside the jungle,
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4:59 - 5:02you might meet the strangler fig.
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5:02 - 5:06It grows in areas where sunlight is scant
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5:06 - 5:08and competition is intense.
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5:08 - 5:11And so it has a strategy
to sort of cut in line and get ahead. -
5:11 - 5:14You see, its seeds are dispersed by birds
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5:14 - 5:17that drop them atop the branches
of existing trees. -
5:17 - 5:20And that little seed will start
to germinate from there, -
5:20 - 5:22sending its shoots upward to the sky
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5:22 - 5:25and its roots all the way
down to the ground, -
5:25 - 5:29all the while strangling
the host tree, often to death. -
5:30 - 5:32And even if that host tree
dies and rots away, -
5:33 - 5:34the strangler will persist
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5:34 - 5:37as a hollowed-out column
of roots and branches. -
5:38 - 5:39And if that didn't impress you,
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5:39 - 5:42let me show you one
of my personal favorites: -
5:42 - 5:43the Neelakurinji.
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5:44 - 5:45When it blossoms,
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5:45 - 5:47it does so in unison,
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5:47 - 5:51covering entire hillsides
in carpets of blue. -
5:51 - 5:56This is its pollination strategy
known as "gregarious flowering," -
5:56 - 6:00in which it invests all of its resources
into a single, spectacular event -
6:00 - 6:03aimed at attracting
pollinators to the feast -- -
6:03 - 6:04which is easily done,
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6:04 - 6:08considering the Neelakurinji
is all that can be seen for miles around. -
6:08 - 6:09But here's the catch:
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6:09 - 6:12it happens only once every 12 years.
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6:12 - 6:13(Applause)
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6:13 - 6:15And soon after seeding,
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6:15 - 6:17these flowers will die,
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6:17 - 6:20not to be seen again
for the next 12 years. -
6:21 - 6:25This is our way of telling a story
of the Western Ghats: -
6:25 - 6:27through plants and through
their ecosystems -
6:27 - 6:29and the various ways
in which they interact -
6:29 - 6:31with players in their habitats.
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6:31 - 6:33It's glorious, isn't it?
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6:33 - 6:35But the way things are going,
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6:35 - 6:38we can't be sure that the Neelakurinji
will come out to play again -
6:38 - 6:40in the next 12 years.
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6:41 - 6:44The further and further
we grow from nature, -
6:44 - 6:47the more we are almost
literally blind to it -
6:47 - 6:50and the effects that
our activities have on it. -
6:50 - 6:53And that's what it's called --
"plant blindness": -
6:53 - 6:58the increasing inability
to really register the plants around us -
6:58 - 6:59as living beings.
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6:59 - 7:02The two scientists that coined this term,
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7:02 - 7:04Elisabeth Schussler and James Wandersee,
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7:04 - 7:08contend that plants lack
certain visual cues. -
7:08 - 7:10They don't have faces,
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7:10 - 7:11they don't move,
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7:11 - 7:13and we don't perceive them as threats.
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7:13 - 7:19And so with the increasing onslaught
of information that our eyes receive, -
7:19 - 7:22we just deprioritize registering plants,
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7:22 - 7:26simply filtering out information
that we view as extraneous. -
7:27 - 7:29But stop to think about that.
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7:30 - 7:32Are plants really extra?
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7:33 - 7:35Are they just nature's backdrop?
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7:36 - 7:40Or are they the fundamental
building blocks -
7:40 - 7:42upon which all life is based,
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7:42 - 7:45the starting points of our ecosystems
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7:45 - 7:49and the reason why earth
is sustainable for life to this day? -
7:50 - 7:54I leave you with these images
from a program called "Wild Shaale," -
7:54 - 7:56which in Kannada means "wild school."
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7:56 - 7:59It's run by a conservationist,
Krithi Karanth. -
8:00 - 8:02And her team turned
some of my illustrations -
8:02 - 8:05into games that village children
could play with and learn from. -
8:06 - 8:11And I can tell you they were so excited
to see plants that they recognized -- -
8:11 - 8:13the trees that the monkeys play on,
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8:13 - 8:16the flowers they use
at their harvest festival, -
8:16 - 8:18the fruit they use to wash their hair.
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8:18 - 8:22And it's that sort of familiarity
which, when celebrated, -
8:22 - 8:23turns to love,
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8:24 - 8:26which then turns into an urge to protect.
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8:27 - 8:31It's really time we open our eyes
to the world around us, -
8:31 - 8:34to this entire kingdom
that's hidden in plain sight. -
8:35 - 8:38And so the next time
you're stuck in traffic, -
8:38 - 8:39you know what to do.
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8:39 - 8:41(Applause)
- Title:
- Hand-drawn illustrations of the world's weirdest plants
- Speaker:
- Nirupa Rao
- Description:
-
Botanical artist Nirupa Rao captures the spirit and beauty of nature in watercolor. With a portfolio of enchanting, scientifically accurate illustrations, she aims to reignite our emotional connection to the environment -- and open our eyes to an entire kingdom hidden in plain sight.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 08:54
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for An illustrated kingdom of real, fantastical plants | ||
Erin Gregory approved English subtitles for An illustrated kingdom of real, fantastical plants | ||
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for An illustrated kingdom of real, fantastical plants | ||
Camille Martínez accepted English subtitles for An illustrated kingdom of real, fantastical plants | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for An illustrated kingdom of real, fantastical plants | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for An illustrated kingdom of real, fantastical plants | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for An illustrated kingdom of real, fantastical plants | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for An illustrated kingdom of real, fantastical plants |