Marnie Chesterton

So, if you come across a stressed out new mum who seems to be leaving a banana-scented aroma in her wake, maybe give her some space?

For both your sakes.

Now it's time in the show where we use everything in our powers to try and answer those tricksy science questions that AI tools just won't answer.

Think of us as scientific matchmakers, pairing your musing to an expert who's really put in the years to finding the answer to your question.

It's time for Ask the Unexpected.

And our question this week comes from a regular listener of the show, Liz from London.

Liz's dying houseplants got her thinking about how plants in the wild die.

Do they mostly die of old age or does something else come for them?

To find out, we tapped into our scientific speed dial and gave Dr. Naomi Fraga, Director of Conservation Programs at the California Botanic Garden, a call.

So human interaction seems to play a large role in plants' susceptibility to death.

Michael, Sandy, listener Liz was inspired to write in her question because of her dying houseplants.

I've got to say, either of you green-fingered or are you adept at killing houseplants and can tell us how to do it?

I once killed a cactus, so we all know how hardy those plants are.

Wow, that is advanced-level plant killing.

I know because Michael has a farm that Michael knows how to look after plants.

Give Michael all your points, all the gold stars.

All the gold stars to Michael.

Well, another thing to bear in mind is that I'm constantly talking about these amazingly long-lived plants.

So I'm thinking of redwoods that can live for thousands of years.

And we talk about them on science shows because they are outliers and it's so majestic that something can live to 6,000 years.