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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: The Meaning of Trees

The Essay: The Meaning of Trees: Episode 12: Cherry

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The Meaning of Trees

Episode 12

Episode 12: Cherry

Cherry

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The Meaning of Trees, Cherry

Fiona Stafford discusses the cherry tree, prized in many ways, but also in sharp decline.

Fiona Stafford discusses the cherry tree, prized for spring blossoms, wood for furniture and fruit, but whose numbers are in sharp decline.

In many countries, cherries are there just to look pretty - a short party trick trotted out once a year which everyone loves and coos at, but then its got to be kept the rest of the year too. True, it has unrivalled spring blossoms, a truly stunning beauty, especially in large numbers. It has much-prized wood and fruit, both of which have a long British pedigree, yet man and global warming have removed 90 per cent of UK cherry trees since 1930. In other countries (Japan especially) it is a sacred tree as a flowering cherry, but the fruit has been monopolised by a few countries - Turkey and the USA especially. Apart from fruit, cherry trees are prized for their swirling, eye-ridden, colourful hardwood which is amongst the most prized for cabinetry and furniture making, and medicinally they can cure gout, fever and help us sleep. 

Producer - Turan Ali 
A Bona Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 3.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Fiona Stafford explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises of trees

Professor Fiona Stafford of Oxford University explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises about different trees, as well as our ambiguous relationship with them.

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