Video-Enhanced Lesson

In this lesson, students will use segments from Nature: Wild Balkans to explore the roles and interrelationships of organisms in the varied environments of the Balkan Peninsula.

These video segments from Nature: Wild Balkans are designed for classroom use for students to explore the roles and interrelationships of organisms in the varied environments of the Balkan Peninsula.

(Airs Sunday, August 30) It may be one of nature's oddest couples: a tiny wasp and a giant fig tree. The wasp and the fig depend on each other for survival.

Some seeds shoot like tiny missiles. Others drill themselves into the soil.

View additional resources for NATURE's "The Seedy Side of Plants."

The quest for survival has even led plants to develop devious ways of fooling us into working for them as they send their seeds out to conquer new lands.

Plants have spent millions of years learning how to produce seeds that can ensure the birth of a new generation. And people have spent thousands of years struggling to control that powerful force.

In their quest to spread their seeds, plants have proved endlessly adaptable.

How does such a seemingly passive life form accomplish the complex task of reproduction?

Some 33 percent of the tepuis' known plants are endemic to the region. Most of the Lost World's wondrous botanical bounty lies on Mount Roraima.