Stuart Farrimond - The Science of Gardening: Discover How Your Garden Really Grows

Here are just a few of the more remarkable ways in which plants have evolved to survive and thrive, including making their own food, duping animals into transporting their pollen, and regenerating parts that have been eaten.

Plants give us every breath of oxygen that fills our lungs, make their food out of thin air in a process called photosynthesis, and are the original source of every mouthful we eat. They are the lynchpin of all life on earth and the ultimate survivors, managing to thrive in even the harshest conditions in practically every corner of the globe. Trees can weigh in at over 2,000 tonnes and can live to be over 5,000 years old. Some Great Basin bristlecone pine trees ( Pinus longaeva ) were alive even before Egypts pyramids were built.

Few organisms can survive -50C (-58F) temperatures, yet plants have found a way. Moss campion ( Silene acaulis ) is a type of cushion plant that hugs the ground as a squat dome to escape the worst of the wind. It happily survives on frozen mountainsides under a blanket of snow, while biological antifreeze in its sap stops it freezing.

In the parched deserts of southwest Africa, the seeds of alien-like Welwitschia plants can wait for centuries until rainfall provides the right conditions for germination. In the Atacama desert, where years can pass without rain, desert moss ( Syntrichia caninervis ) stays alive by sucking moisture directly out of passing fog and mist. Air plants ( Tillandsia ) need no soil whatsoever, but use their wiry roots to cling to rocks, branches or cliff faces, pulling moisture directly from the air and harvesting nutrients by catching passing dust in their tiny leaf hairs (called trichomes). Unsurprisingly, Tillandsia plants tend to be very slow growing.

Plants have overcome their inability to move in astonishing ways. Large, bauble-shaped Brunsvigia is a type of tumbleweed whose flowerhead dries up, amputates itself, and then rolls off in the breeze, dropping its seed. Javan cucumbers ( Alsomitra macrocarpa ) produce seeds shaped like gliders that, launched from their high vines, will soar for hundreds of metres. Dwarf mistletoes ( Arceuthobium ), which grow as parasites on trees, expand their range by expelling glue-coated seeds at 60mph (97kph). As their fruits ripen, the flesh heats up rapidly (called thermogenesis) until the fruit ruptures and fires out seeds at high speed.

Living in a world of hungry creatures means plants have developed some sophisticated defence systems to avoid being eaten. Cacti have evolved to defend their water-filled bodies from attackers by turning their leaves into sharp spikes, while succulents known as living stones ( Lithops ) hide in plain site from thirsty animals by looking just like pebbles. The deadly dynamite tree ( Hura crepitans ) has lethal sap that is used in poison darts, and spreads its seeds with a bang. The trees innocent-looking fruit is a grenade primed to explode. As it dries, tension builds up in the skin until eventually, with a tiny tap, the whole fruit breaks apart violently each seed-loaded segment rocketing outwards at up to 156mph (251kph). Seeds are dispersed, and would-be predators get a nasty shock!

Extraordinary adaptations Plants have evolved countless ingenious ways to survive and flourish in every habitat, from lush rainforests, to inhospitable deserts and mountainsides.

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