Radio Times: Review by:; David Crawford

It’s a midsummer night’s dream as Attenborough creeps into Kew’s Princess of Wales Conservatory at midnight to marvel at the flowering of the queen of the night cactus. It’s the overture to his exploration of how some plants have evolved to shed their dependency on water, and is followed by a mesmerising slow-motion sequence highlighting the connection between cacti and their bat pollinators.

As dawn breaks he meets the amazing Agave franzosinii, which grows steadily for 50 years only to flower itself to death with one orgasmic bloom that bursts out of the roof of Kew’s greenhouse.

About this programme

3/3. The naturalist concludes his exploration of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, west London, by examining plants that have evolved to minimise their dependence on water, enabling them to survive in the world's driest environments. He witnesses a cactus blooming at midnight, tells the story of the spectacular flowering of the Agave franzosinii, and visits the Millennium Seed Bank, a facility designed to save plants from future extinction. Last in the series.