Original version

BBC World Service South Asia

Discovery

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Discovery: The Mars of the Mid-Atlantic

Magazines & Reviews

The Mars of the Mid-Atlantic

24/10/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - Discovery, The Mars of the Mid-AtlanticSearch BBC

Peter Gibbs explores Ascension Island, a barren Atlantic rock made fertile by man

Ascension Island is a tiny scrap of British territory, marooned in the tropical mid-Atlantic roughly halfway between Brazil and Africa. It is the tip of a giant undersea volcano – rugged, remote and, up until around 150 years ago, almost completely devoid of vegetation.

Peter Gibbs visits to learn how 19th Century botanist Joseph Hooker, encouraged by Charles Darwin, planted a forest on the island’s summit to trap moisture brought by the trade winds, introducing a panoply of flora from around the world - ginger, guava, bamboo, ficus and dozens more.

But is Ascension’s cloud forest all it appears? He talks to conservationists struggling to cope with invasive species running riot, hears about the rescue of Ascension’s tiny endemic ferns, encounters nesting turtles on the beaches and ventures among the chattering ‘wideawakes’ on the sweltering lava plains by the coast.

(Photo: Ascension Island. Credit: Matthew Teller)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Discovery

The Mars of the Mid-Atlantic

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service South Asia

About BBC World Service