Plants: From Roots to Riches: Blight on the Landscape

Professor Kathy Willis examines how the tragedy of the Irish potato famine in 1845 sparked the emergence of a major new discipline in science - plant pathology. She speaks to Bryn Dentinger, Kew Garden's head of mycology, about the significance of German botanist Anton de Bary's experiments, which would lead to new understandings of potato blight. Historian Jim Endersby also explains how Beatrix Potter's observations in the 19th century led to the idea that many fungi were able to live in symbiosis with other plants