Serotiny in Jack Pines (Growing Better)

     Author: Chris Martine and Dave Fleming

The second webisode in the "Growing Better" series of DIY botany videos produced and hosted by Dr. Chris Martine, a professor at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. This webisode explores the concept of serotiny as exemplified by the jack pines (Pinus banksiana) of the rare habitat known as the sandstone pavement barrens. We begin in the snowy barrens among the trees, and end in a neighbor's kitchen "cooking" pine cones with a group of local kids. The concept behind this series is that we feel there are already plenty of animal shows, but not enough (if any) plant shows. We don't need another gardening program. What we need are fun, adventurous, and educational shows about plants that play similarly to things like "The Crocodile Hunter" or, perhaps, Alton Brown. We'd like to head in one of those directions, eventually.