

Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't
Tony Santore
Why do some plants grow where they do? How can geology cause new plant species to evolve? Why are some plants pollinated by flies, some by bats, some by birds, and others by bees? How does a plant evolve to look like a rock? How can destroying lawns soothe the soul? This is a show about plants and plant habitat through the lens of natural selection and ecology, with a side of neurotic ranting, light humor, occasional profanity, & the perpetual search for the filthiest taqueria bathroom.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 26, 2025 • 2h 7min
New Plant Discovered in West Texas, Neotropical Palms, & Panama Hats
Episodes of the Crime Pays Podcast are available Ad-Free on the Patreon at : https://www.patreon.com/c/CrimePaysButBotanyDoesntRants about the New Asteraceae species discovered at Big Bend National Park, Ovicula biradiata, as well as an exploration of a few species of Neotropical Palms, potential musical choices for waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay and Divine Retribution against America in the form of audible torture, vandalizing crepe myrtles and Bradford Pears, and a thirty minute exposé on Beetle Pollination in the Panama Hat Family, Cyclanthaceae.

Feb 20, 2025 • 2h 10min
Guayusa Rants
A 2 hour rant about the upper Amazon, the Paramo, ant symbiosis, Ilex guayusa, ethnobotany at the fruit market, giant neotropical bamboos, and much more. Ad-free episodes of the podcast are available on the Crime Pays Patreon at : https://www.patreon.com/c/CrimePaysButBotanyDoesntThumbnail is a photograph of Miconia inobsepta and its swollen petioles acting as ant domatia.

Feb 10, 2025 • 1h 32min
Upper Amazon Fungi w/ Alan Rockefeller in Ecuador
A conversation with mycologist Alan Rockefeller about fungal and plant biodiversity of the upper Amazon of Ecuador.Episodes of the Crime Pays podcast are available Ad-Free on the Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt

Jan 29, 2025 • 2h 10min
Atlas Nativa de Chile - Miquel Moya
Miguel Moya is a naturalist and designer who produces field guides and posters for native plants in Chile. In this episode we talk about the sclerophyll forest, the temperate rainforests of Chile Island, indigenous communities in the Southern region, Araucaria forests, Gomortega kuele, Ancient Gondwanan disjunctions, Citronella mucronata, rare plants of the Santiago area and more.Ad-Free episodes of the crime pays Podcast are available on the Patreon for a measly five bucks a month, so quit your whinin about the awful ads (as if you don't have fingers you can use to press buttons to skip through them) and sign up, where you'll have access to e see rly screenings of videos, photo dumps of rare plants, free literature, educational PDFs and more at www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt

Jan 25, 2025 • 2h 38min
Alerce Forests, Bog Tarantulas, & Arachnitis uniflora
In this episode we talk about Alerce Forests, Ocelot Tarantulas that live in bogs in Temperate Rainforests, Why the Rosulate Form Makes sense in Alpine Habitats, and the extremely weird mycoheterotroph, Arachnitis uniflora.Ad-Free episodes of this podcast can be listened to on the Crime Pays Patreon at : www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt

Jan 24, 2025 • 1h 27min
Araucaria Forests of Chile
Rants about the Araucaria forests of Nahuelbuta and Conguillo, Chile : Towering, 1200 year-old Araucaria araucana trees with an understory of Nothofagus pumilio, dombeyi and obliqua; thigmonastic, moving stamens in Loasa acanthifolia; Chusquea and new world bamboos; Mutisioid composites, biogeographyband plant distributions that are a result of both Gondwanan Breakup and amphitropical bird migration patterns, and more.If the ads are bummin you out than stop whining and join the Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt where you'll have access to Ad-Free Podcast episodes, early screenings of videos and more.

Jan 21, 2025 • 1h 53min
Chilean Flora w/ Botanist Nico Lavandero
Nico Lavandero is a Chilean Botanist who has described 8 new species of plants in Chile and is in the proc of describing many more. In this podcast we talk about a diversity of subjects, from Chile's 1974 Forest Law that incentivized the destruction of native forest for pine plantations, why plants take on dwarfed rosulate growth forms at high altitude in the Andes, Alerce forests, a growing awareness of native plants in Chilean culture, the marvelous abundan of agua con gas, and much more.Nico Lavandero & Ludovica Santilli :IG : Botanica.chilensisAD-FREE EPISODES OF THE PODCAST ARE AVAILABLE ON THE CRIME PAYS PATREON AT : https://www.patreon.com/c/CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt

Jan 11, 2025 • 2h 37min
Birdsong Landscapes
Austin Miller runs Birdsong Landscapes, a native plant landscaping company and Natural History page based out of Southwest Ohio. In this episode we talk about continents as ecosystems, the natural history of Ohio, the Hopewell Culture and the Eastern Agirculture Complex, injecting native plant awareness into popular culture, lawn-killing, freshwater mussel diversity in Eastern North American rivers, vigilante-killing Bradford pears, hotricultural atrocities, feral pigs, the biosphere as a "living machine", and a lot more. Check him out on instagram @birdsonglandscapesAd-free versions of every episode are available on the Patreon at www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt

Jan 6, 2025 • 1h 25min
Potential Problems with Blight-Resistant Chestnuts
For some background on the developing story of creating a blight-resistant American chestnut, please check out the podcast episode a few episodes back with Erik Carlson.Jared Westbrook is a geneticist with the American Chestnut Foundation. In this episode we talk about what went wrong with the initial round of trials for blight-resistant chestnuts, how to combine targeted genetic approaches to hybridizing American and Chinese Chestnut trees for blight resistance, thousands of years of human selection in the chinese chestnut genome as an agricultural species, problems with inheritance for the oXo gene that breaks down oxalic acid, why oxalic acid production might not be all that's involved with the virulence of Chestnut blight, and more. This is a good episode, even for laypeople who may not be familiar with basic genetic science. To learn more about the American Chestnut Federation and to join a local chapter, check out www.tacf.orgAd-Free versions of every podcast episode are available on the patreon at www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt

Jan 2, 2025 • 2h 19min
Better Living Through Reptiles
In this episode we sit down with Kyle Elmore of the youtube channel @popmilk for a two hour talk about herping (lurking for reptiles and amphibians), creating habitat, passionately obsessing over milksnakes, why Indigo Snakes are so chill, self-education, embracing the living world as a side-hobby, coping with habitat loss, naming milk snakes,, the glory of tin, getting bit by copperheads, being attacked by africanized bees, teaching organic chemistry, and more. Check out Kyle's stuff at @popmilk_herping (instagram) and @popmilk (youtube). Reminder that if the ads bum you out (and they should, because they're mostly for garbage and adjusted to targeted demographics), for a measly five bucks a month you'll have access to all the Crime Pays podcast episodes on the Crime Pays Patreon at www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt


