Plot Synopsis

ROOTED: AMERICA'S TREES OF LIFE is a three-part documentary series about three of the Americas' iconic trees, Each tree is a vast ecosystem that will surprise even the most avid nature lover. The viewer is taken on a journey across this majestic continent to meet a cast of charismatic characters that visit each tree. The series investigates their fight for survival in these untamed lands, and explores their link to some of the world's oldest living beings... trees! It's a series of extraordinary interlinked relationships... One link simply cannot survive without the others. Episodes include:

"A Hard Nut to Crack": When you think of a Brazil nut, you generally picture the large, delectable nuts you buy in bulk at your local grocer... But you don't consider where these delicious treats come from. Yes, they hail from South American countries like Brazil, but the nuts aren't harvested on a plantation or cultivated in a nursery. For it to reproduce, the Brazil nut tree relies on a series of intricate symbiotic relationships with plants, animals and insects found in the wild. This means that the Brazil Nut tree only grows in its natural habitat -- the Amazon rainforest. It's here, in the heart of the Amazon that we find one of these incredible trees... a 500-year-old Brazil nut, nearly 60 metres tall!

"Mangrove City": In the dank, tropical marshlands of Mexico, we find one of the biggest mangrove trees on the planet, a Red mangrove more than 30 metres tall! This tree, with its elongated spidery roots, is quite a sight to behold. Its vast, tangled root system is a magical realm that provides shelter and food to an array of animal species, from fish, crabs and crocodiles, to larger birds and mammals found nowhere else on the planet. In essence, the mangrove ecosystem is a wild city inhabited by an assortment of creatures... a metropolis for wildlife! Highly adapted to grow in this swampy setting, the Red mangrove has developed stilt roots that grow from high on the tree's trunk, or from its branches, down to the ground and into the water. Once the tip of the root meets the earth, many smaller roots develop from it to anchor the tree to the soil.

"The Living Fossil": On the snow-covered slopes of the Andes mountains, a living fossil has been rooted for over a thousand years... the monkey puzzle tree. Its most distinguished feature are the tree's leaves; dark green, rigid scales with spiny tips that spiral around the tree's branches. It's these leaves that indirectly give the tree its name; there are no monkeys found in Chile, but it's believed that a monkey would find it quite difficult to scale a tree with such hazardous leaves... hence, a puzzle for monkeys. Monkey puzzles belong to an ancient family of trees called conifers; these trees reproduce by means of cones instead of flowers. These cones produce large edible seeds, locally known as pinones. In summer, austral parakeets swarm the tree and break open the ripe cones to devour their delicious, nutty contents. But the parakeets are messy eaters, as they tear open the cones, many of the seeds spill to the ground unharmed where other animals, like the Chilean rock rat, and even foxes, eat the nuts.