A RENOWNED city geologist will demonstrate how plants are the "silent power" that has shaped the Earth, in a new three-part series to be shown on national television.

Professor Iain Stewart's 'How to Grow a Planet' will offer a totally new perspective on the world's history, and will document the crucial role that plants have played in its evolution.

The programme, which starts on BBC2 on Tuesday will reveal how they harnessed light from the sun and created our life-giving atmosphere; formed the fertile soil allowing life to come ashore; created the planet's colour; sculpted the planet itself, carving it's very surface; drove the evolution of every single animal in the world; and even shaped the destiny of our ancient ancestors.

Iain, a Professor of Geoscience Communication, in Plymouth University's School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, journeyed to some of the most remote and striking locations on Earth as part of his filming for the series.

He said: "I had always thought of plants as being rather boring – less dramatic than the earthquakes and volcanoes I had been studying.

"But when you realise what plants do at the planet scale, and when you discover just how fundamental they are to life on Earth, they take your breath away."

The series features Iain carrying out a number of experiments to demonstrate the power of plants to transform their surroundings.

He even staked his health on their oxygenating properties when he sealed himself in an air-tight chamber, with hundreds of plants for company, at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

Iain added: "I think it was being stuck in a transparent air-tight container for 48 hours with 274 of them that really made me appreciate plants.

"Locked in there, with half the oxygen removed, I suddenly realised how much I needed plants to keep me alive. It is a hell of a way to highlight something we so take for granted – photosynthesis."