On The Ledge | Grow houseplants with the experts
On The Ledge | Grow houseplants with the experts
Jane Perrone
OTL reloaded: Weird Plants by Chris Thorogood
43 minutes Posted Jun 26, 2026 at 4:08 pm.
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Show notes

I'm taking a break until July 17 but while I am gone, I am bringing you three gems from the On The Ledge archive. The first is episode 71, first published way back in 2018, all about some of the odder houseplants in existence.

Dr Chris Thorogood is a botanist at Oxford Botanic Garden with a clever sideline in painting brilliant pictures of the plants he loves and studies: his new book, Weird Plants, is a brilliant book for anyone who wants to delve a bit deeper into some of the strangest corners of the botanical world.

I find out from Chris why engineers are studying the slippery qualities of Nepenthes pitchers, which creature uses Low's pitcher plant as a toilet, and why Stapelia flowers look mouldy.

See full show notes here: https://www.janeperrone.com/on-the-ledge/2018/11/6/episode-71-chris-thorogood 

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Check out The Atlas of Deadly Plants, Legends of the Leaf, my book on houseplants and my houseplant cards Houseplant Gardener in a Box here.

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