July 13, 2025 • 25 mins
It seems that Geraldine and Jo have big word alerts galore in their pockets this week! Don't worry - they find out what each of the words means as they go, and have plenty of fun along the way. This week their happy pants are autumn colours, light brown like the smell of toast and orange like the colour of orange juice. What colour are your happy pants?
Explore the outdoors with Geraldine and Jo, learning about garden-dwelling critters you'll be able to find in your backyard or local park! And if you listen closely, you just might hear a caterpillar munching on its morning tea...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:13):
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:33):
G'day, and welcome to Happy Pants, a show specially for
kids and especially for you. My name is Geraldine.
S3 (00:41):
And my name is Joe. And together, we're your happy
pants team for today.
S2 (00:47):
Are you wearing your happy pants? We are today. Mine
are bright orange with lots of different leaf shapes printed
all over in shades of brown. The orange color makes
me think of the taste of orange juice.
S3 (01:01):
My happy pants are sort of light brown. I like
the smell of toast. They have leaves printed on them too. Oh,
but my leaves are yellow. Hello. This kind of yellow
reminds me of the taste of egg yolks and the
smell of bacon.
S2 (01:19):
And that reminds me, Jo. Why did the bacon laugh?
S3 (01:24):
Oh, I have a feeling you're going to tell me, Geraldine.
S2 (01:27):
Because the egg cracked a yolk.
S3 (01:32):
Oh, no. It's much too early in the day for
jokes like that.
S2 (01:36):
Well, do you have a better one?
S3 (01:37):
Mm. Of course. What would happen if pigs could fly?
S2 (01:44):
I couldn't guess.
S3 (01:45):
The price of bacon would skyrocket.
S2 (01:49):
Oh, no more, no more, no more. Something sensible please.
Although a flying pig would be a sight to see.
S3 (01:58):
Okay, our happy pants have lots of pockets. Oh, maybe
we should have a look and see what's been hidden
for us to find.
S2 (02:06):
Good idea. Then we can work out what Happy Pants
wants us to talk about today. You go first, Joe.
S3 (02:13):
Right in this front pocket, there is a magnifying glass.
And in this one is a trowel. Your turn. Geraldine, why?
Try and get the back pockets open?
S2 (02:30):
Well, so far I've pulled out some small plastic jars.
Another trowel. A long cardboard tube like the inside of
a plastic wrap roll. No, it's two cardboard tubes.
S3 (02:44):
Oh, Geraldine, can you give me a hand with whatever
this thing is, please?
S2 (02:49):
Sure. And seems to be very long. It's a sort
of handle, I think.
S3 (02:53):
Yes, but whatever it is on the end that seems
to be stuck. Oh. Oh. That's better. Oh, goodness. I
wonder what we're supposed to do with a rake.
S2 (03:04):
That's a leaf rake.
S3 (03:07):
So we have two trowels, a magnifying glass, a leaf rake.
S2 (03:13):
Some little plastic jars, and two cardboard tubes. Now all
we have to do is put those clues together and
work out what we're supposed to talk about today.
S3 (03:24):
Mhm. Magnifying glass for looking at very small things.
S2 (03:30):
Jars for putting small things in.
S3 (03:33):
Trowels for digging things up.
S2 (03:35):
And a rake for cleaning up fallen leaves and cardboard tubes.
For what?
S3 (03:41):
Uh. Um. Well, well, I think we need some music
to get our brains ticking over.
S2 (03:48):
Oh. Something to wake us up all over. Come on, everyone,
on your feet. Find a space and shake your body.
S3 (04:46):
Oh, that feels much better. Body loosened up, brain loosened up.
Ready to roll.
S2 (04:52):
Nut rake. It's for leaves. And leaves are outside, so
we need to be outside.
S3 (05:00):
Yep. And trowels are for digging. That's outside too. I'm
sure we'll find out what the magnifying glass and plastic
jars are for once we're outside.
S2 (05:11):
Well, that's our first clue. It's autumn, and those trees
have shed their leaves. There's an orange and brown and
yellow carpet all over the lawn.
S3 (05:21):
Just like our happy pants colors we are wearing. Autumn.
S2 (05:26):
Well, we've raked up all the leaves and piled them
in a corner of the garden. And before long, the
worms and bugs will have munched them up. And the
fungi and bacteria will have rotted everything down. We'll have
some lovely compost to dig into the soil to keep
our garden healthy. Win win for everyone. The worms and
(05:46):
bugs get a feed, the plants are kept healthy and
we have a nice garden.
S3 (05:52):
And I think I've worked out most of the other clues.
S2 (05:55):
Or. Go on, enlighten me.
S3 (05:57):
Well, we've just used the rake to pile up all
those autumn leaves to make compost, and compost is broken
down by all the creatures that eat and recycle plant material.
We can use those trowels to dig through some of
the compost and see just which creatures are there. Most
of them are pretty small, so we can use the
(06:19):
magnifying glass to see them better, and we put each
one into one of those little plastic jars. We can
check them out without hurting them. Ah, I haven't worked
out what the cardboard tubes are for though.
S2 (06:36):
Hmm. Well, we've recognized clear space over there. We could
dig down and see what we can find in the
soil under where the leaves were. The first thing I
found is a garden cockroach. They're cousins of the ones
that try to get into the house, but these ones
like to be outdoors, and they're useful recyclers.
S3 (06:58):
Oh, I found a millipede. Another recycler. It munches on
any dead plant material. Millipede means a thousand legs. Geraldine,
could you pass me that magnifying glass, please? Thanks. Hmm. No,
I didn't think so. There are a lot of legs,
(07:20):
but certainly not a thousand. I guess the first people
to see them and give them a name didn't count
the legs. They just made a guess.
S2 (07:29):
Well, there must be lots of things we never notice
living in and around our garden. Let's see what else
we can find.
S3 (08:17):
Oh, look, I found a nice fat earthworm. What do
we know about earthworms?
S2 (08:25):
Uh, Joe, what's worse than finding a worm in your apple?
S3 (08:29):
Finding half a worm?
S2 (08:31):
Yuck!
S4 (08:33):
Wow. Wow.
S2 (08:36):
I do know earthworms are great for the soil. They
recycle plant material. So they're part of nature's cleanup crew.
And their burrows aerate the soil.
S3 (08:49):
Big word alert. To aerate means to allow air to
pass through.
S2 (08:55):
They are invertebrates.
S3 (09:00):
Big word alert. Now, that is a big word. Invertebrate
means something without a backbone.
S2 (09:09):
That's right. Worms have no backbone. Or any other bones
for that matter. They don't have eyes, but they do
have two tiny patches on their head that allows them
to detect light, but they can't actually see. They can't
hear either. At least not like we hear worms here
(09:30):
by detecting vibrations through their skin.
S3 (09:34):
The biggest earthworm in the world lives in Australia. It's
the giant Gippsland worm, and it grows to more than
a meter long and more than two centimeters thick. That's
thicker than a dad thumb.
S2 (09:51):
There's a very beautiful earthworm that lives in a very
small area in Japan. It's about as long as your
arm from fingers to elbow and as thick as your
little finger. It's called a Kantaro, and it's colored a
beautiful bright blue.
S3 (10:12):
Worms move by stretching, then crunching up their bodies to
stop their bodies slipping. Earthworms have tiny, stiff bristles that
grip the soil.
S2 (10:25):
Big word alert. Bristles are short, stiff hairs, like the
ones on your toothbrush or on dad's chin when he
needs a shave.
S3 (10:35):
Hey, Geraldine, can I borrow that sheet of paper, please? Thanks.
The bristles are really tiny, but if we put the
worm on the sheet of paper, we should be able
to hear the scratching sounds the bristles make are. There.
(10:55):
Hear that?
S2 (10:57):
Well, I think so. Tell you what. If I put
one end of the cardboard tube next to my ear
and the other close to the worm, the sound should
be clearer. Oh, yes. It works. The tube blocks out
a lot of the background noise and I can hear
the bristles scratching quite clearly. That's why Happy Pants gave
(11:20):
us the tubes.
S3 (11:21):
Oh, we can listen in on all sorts of things.
Here's a caterpillar having morning tea. Let's listen to it munching.
S2 (11:33):
Oh, there'll be plenty of different things around under or
on this tree. It has lots of visitors.
S3 (11:40):
But I bet there are lots that we never notice.
S2 (11:43):
Well, you're right. We notice the big things like birds
and possums, but we never see the little things. There
are spiders that hide in the bark and caterpillars that
feast on the leaves.
S3 (11:56):
There are cicadas that sing in the summer and geckos
that hunt flies and moths amongst the branches.
S2 (12:03):
All these creatures need trees for their homes and supermarkets,
and in return they act like housekeepers. They tidy away
old leaves and recycle them into food for the tree roots.
They control pests which might harm the tree. They need
the tree, and the tree needs them.
S3 (12:24):
When everything balances out, nature acts like a sort of
web where everything has a use and a place. A
sort of family.
S5 (13:04):
Two. Hundred. Can. You find.
S1 (15:00):
I love wearing my happy pants while I'm listening to
Happy Pants.
S2 (15:04):
Did you know that trees can sort of talk to
each other? Not like we talk. Of course. Or even
like animals which pass their messages by sounds or body movements.
Trees use a helper. And that helper is a fungus.
S3 (15:23):
Fungus? Oh, you mean like mushrooms?
S2 (15:27):
Well, mushrooms are one kind of fungus, but there are many,
many different kinds. Most fungi live hidden, often underground. And
the part we see, like the mushrooms, is the bit
they send up carrying spore that can drift away on
the wind or the water to start a new fungus.
The rest of the fungus stays hidden. Fungi are not plants.
(15:52):
And they're not animals either. They belong to their own
special group. The fungus sends out long threads which snake
through the ground, searching out food sources and water. They
also take up minerals like phosphates, zinc, iron, copper.
S3 (16:12):
Some kinds of fungus share their minerals with trees. They
wrap themselves around the tree roots and exchange minerals for
some of the food the tree makes in its leaves.
That kind of sharing between two different kinds of life
is called symbiosis.
S2 (16:33):
Big word alert. Now that is a super big word.
Not many kids know that word. Symbiosis means shared life.
The tree needs the fungus and the fungus needs the tree,
their partners and both benefit because.
S3 (16:52):
The fungus sends out those threads for a long way.
They meet up with other threads from other trees and
make a sort of net of threads. If one tree
is being attacked by pests of some kind or some
harmful bacteria or something, it can send out a chemical
distress call that runs through the web and warns other trees.
(17:16):
Those trees can then do things to protect themselves, like
releasing chemicals that drive off pests or attract other insects
which will eat the pests. So although trees don't use
words and they need fungi to carry messages, they can
sort of talk to each other.
S2 (17:34):
We think of a tree as something by itself, and
we don't notice the huge family that lives in, on,
under and around it. Today's story is about a tree
like that, a beauty leaf. Tree beauty leaf trees grow
in the tropical north of Australia, and they're prized for
(17:55):
their fragrant flowers and beautiful leaves.
S1 (17:58):
Yay! It's story time.
S3 (18:01):
Beauty by Sarah Kendall. I have a small family, just
my mum and me. Mum says that one of the
most important things about family is helping each other. Our
dog Mary guards us and cackle and chuckle. Give us
their eggs. So I guess they're part of our family too.
(18:25):
The big beauty leaf tree shades our house, the yard
and my cubby. I reckon it should be included in
our family. I love our tree. I call her beauty. Mrs.
Lee lives next door. All alone. She hates our beauty
(18:46):
leaf tree. She hates how it drops seed pods in
her yard. She hates the leaves blowing into her gutters,
and she hates how its roots wriggle and creep into
her vegetable garden. Sometimes Mrs. Lee yells at mum over
the fence. Are you need to cut that tree down?
(19:07):
It's nothing but a nuisance. Makes me feel sad to
imagine our yard without beauty, no shade and no branches
to climb. Where would all the birds go? Sighs mum.
The more I think about it, the more I realise
how many animals depend on our tree. Lorikeets, cockatoos and
(19:33):
honeyeaters nibble and sip at the flowers. Spangled drongos gold
and swoop for bugs. Green ants trudge up the trunk
to build their nests, and native bees hover to gather pollen.
Tree frogs Nestle in the branches, and I have even
seen a tree snake slithering through the limbs. Scrubfowl roost
(19:58):
at night, disturbed by flying foxes and possums who squabble
and scrunch on seed pods. Geckos dart and scuttle after
moths and mosquitoes. Beauty has a big family cackle and chuckle.
Scratch in the shade and lizards hunt for insects. Bush cockroaches, crickets,
(20:19):
slaters and tiny millipedes scuttle in the leaf litter. I
dig my fingers into the rich darkness under the mulch
and find worms and fat, creamy grubs curled and sleeping
tiny white threads of fungus lace the soil and cling
to the roots. Beauty has a much larger family than
(20:42):
I thought. Mum says that all living things are part
of a network full of helpful connections. These are called
symbiotic relationships. The animals living with the beauty leaf tree
help in so many ways. Some pollinate flowers and spread seed.
(21:03):
Birds and insects recycle leaves into mulch, which becomes food
for the soil. Worms and grubs loosen and break down
the nutrients. Then fungus help tree roots absorb them. I
want to let Mrs. Lee know about Beauty's family. I
write a letter to her, carefully folded around one of
(21:27):
crackles smooth brown eggs, and place it in a small box,
which I push into a gap between our fences. When
I check after school, it's empty. Each morning I write
another letter, and each afternoon the egg and letter have
disappeared from the box. Mum tells me more about the beauty.
(21:49):
Leave symbiotic relationships. There are hunters like praying mantis ladybirds
and wasps that keep leaf munching insects under control. Some
tiny wasps lay their eggs inside caterpillars. There are even
tinier animals, microorganisms which live with beauty. Some of them
(22:13):
help with defence from disease and absorption of food and water,
even when it's hot and dry. Beauty uses sunlight, water,
and a gas called carbon dioxide to make food. This
is called photosynthesis, and it also makes the oxygen we breathe.
(22:34):
I close my eyes and imagine the spaces between things
blurring and forming a huge web of connection that embraces
every living thing in our yard and beyond. The next day,
I collect the box. This time it's not empty. It's
(22:55):
full of fresh herbs and some cherry tomatoes. There is
also a letter. You have taught me a lot about
your tree and now I understand why you love it.
Maybe I can teach you a bit about my vegetable garden. Mrs.
Lee now comes over for cups of teas with mum.
(23:17):
She swaps some of her vegetables for our eggs. And
once a week I help her in the garden. She
pays me a dollar to help her pick up beauty
leaf seeds in her yard. We have a symbiotic relationship.
And that makes Mrs. Lee family too.
S2 (23:34):
That was a reading of beauty written by Sandra Kendall.
The reader was Joe.
S3 (23:41):
Hmm. So what have we done today, Geraldine?
S2 (23:45):
What? We certainly had some big words.
S3 (23:47):
Oh, we did. And I can't wait to drop 1
or 2 into my conversations. There was aerate, which means
to let air pass through. Invertebrate, which is an animal
without a backbone. Bristles which are short, stiff hairs or.
And my favorite symbiosis. That means shared life.
S2 (24:12):
We had a story about a beauty tree, too. That
story told us a lot about all the members of
a tree family. Some we see and hear all the time,
like the birds and possums, and some live secret lives
and only the tree knows they're there.
S3 (24:31):
If there was anything in today's program about which you
would like to know more, you can find us on
Radio Vision Australia. Keep wearing those happy pants and we'll
catch you.
S2 (24:45):
Next.
S3 (24:46):
Time.
S6 (24:58):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area. We pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(25:22):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:33):
G'day, and welcome to Happy Pants, a show specially for
kids and especially for you. My name is Geraldine.
S3 (00:41):
And my name is Joe. And together, we're your happy
pants team for today.
S2 (00:47):
Are you wearing your happy pants? We are today. Mine
are bright orange with lots of different leaf shapes printed
all over in shades of brown. The orange color makes
me think of the taste of orange juice.
S3 (01:01):
My happy pants are sort of light brown. I like
the smell of toast. They have leaves printed on them too. Oh,
but my leaves are yellow. Hello. This kind of yellow
reminds me of the taste of egg yolks and the
smell of bacon.
S2 (01:19):
And that reminds me, Jo. Why did the bacon laugh?
S3 (01:24):
Oh, I have a feeling you're going to tell me, Geraldine.
S2 (01:27):
Because the egg cracked a yolk.
S3 (01:32):
Oh, no. It's much too early in the day for
jokes like that.
S2 (01:36):
Well, do you have a better one?
S3 (01:37):
Mm. Of course. What would happen if pigs could fly?
S2 (01:44):
I couldn't guess.
S3 (01:45):
The price of bacon would skyrocket.
S2 (01:49):
Oh, no more, no more, no more. Something sensible please.
Although a flying pig would be a sight to see.
S3 (01:58):
Okay, our happy pants have lots of pockets. Oh, maybe
we should have a look and see what's been hidden
for us to find.
S2 (02:06):
Good idea. Then we can work out what Happy Pants
wants us to talk about today. You go first, Joe.
S3 (02:13):
Right in this front pocket, there is a magnifying glass.
And in this one is a trowel. Your turn. Geraldine, why?
Try and get the back pockets open?
S2 (02:30):
Well, so far I've pulled out some small plastic jars.
Another trowel. A long cardboard tube like the inside of
a plastic wrap roll. No, it's two cardboard tubes.
S3 (02:44):
Oh, Geraldine, can you give me a hand with whatever
this thing is, please?
S2 (02:49):
Sure. And seems to be very long. It's a sort
of handle, I think.
S3 (02:53):
Yes, but whatever it is on the end that seems
to be stuck. Oh. Oh. That's better. Oh, goodness. I
wonder what we're supposed to do with a rake.
S2 (03:04):
That's a leaf rake.
S3 (03:07):
So we have two trowels, a magnifying glass, a leaf rake.
S2 (03:13):
Some little plastic jars, and two cardboard tubes. Now all
we have to do is put those clues together and
work out what we're supposed to talk about today.
S3 (03:24):
Mhm. Magnifying glass for looking at very small things.
S2 (03:30):
Jars for putting small things in.
S3 (03:33):
Trowels for digging things up.
S2 (03:35):
And a rake for cleaning up fallen leaves and cardboard tubes.
For what?
S3 (03:41):
Uh. Um. Well, well, I think we need some music
to get our brains ticking over.
S2 (03:48):
Oh. Something to wake us up all over. Come on, everyone,
on your feet. Find a space and shake your body.
S3 (04:46):
Oh, that feels much better. Body loosened up, brain loosened up.
Ready to roll.
S2 (04:52):
Nut rake. It's for leaves. And leaves are outside, so
we need to be outside.
S3 (05:00):
Yep. And trowels are for digging. That's outside too. I'm
sure we'll find out what the magnifying glass and plastic
jars are for once we're outside.
S2 (05:11):
Well, that's our first clue. It's autumn, and those trees
have shed their leaves. There's an orange and brown and
yellow carpet all over the lawn.
S3 (05:21):
Just like our happy pants colors we are wearing. Autumn.
S2 (05:26):
Well, we've raked up all the leaves and piled them
in a corner of the garden. And before long, the
worms and bugs will have munched them up. And the
fungi and bacteria will have rotted everything down. We'll have
some lovely compost to dig into the soil to keep
our garden healthy. Win win for everyone. The worms and
(05:46):
bugs get a feed, the plants are kept healthy and
we have a nice garden.
S3 (05:52):
And I think I've worked out most of the other clues.
S2 (05:55):
Or. Go on, enlighten me.
S3 (05:57):
Well, we've just used the rake to pile up all
those autumn leaves to make compost, and compost is broken
down by all the creatures that eat and recycle plant material.
We can use those trowels to dig through some of
the compost and see just which creatures are there. Most
of them are pretty small, so we can use the
(06:19):
magnifying glass to see them better, and we put each
one into one of those little plastic jars. We can
check them out without hurting them. Ah, I haven't worked
out what the cardboard tubes are for though.
S2 (06:36):
Hmm. Well, we've recognized clear space over there. We could
dig down and see what we can find in the
soil under where the leaves were. The first thing I
found is a garden cockroach. They're cousins of the ones
that try to get into the house, but these ones
like to be outdoors, and they're useful recyclers.
S3 (06:58):
Oh, I found a millipede. Another recycler. It munches on
any dead plant material. Millipede means a thousand legs. Geraldine,
could you pass me that magnifying glass, please? Thanks. Hmm. No,
I didn't think so. There are a lot of legs,
(07:20):
but certainly not a thousand. I guess the first people
to see them and give them a name didn't count
the legs. They just made a guess.
S2 (07:29):
Well, there must be lots of things we never notice
living in and around our garden. Let's see what else
we can find.
S3 (08:17):
Oh, look, I found a nice fat earthworm. What do
we know about earthworms?
S2 (08:25):
Uh, Joe, what's worse than finding a worm in your apple?
S3 (08:29):
Finding half a worm?
S2 (08:31):
Yuck!
S4 (08:33):
Wow. Wow.
S2 (08:36):
I do know earthworms are great for the soil. They
recycle plant material. So they're part of nature's cleanup crew.
And their burrows aerate the soil.
S3 (08:49):
Big word alert. To aerate means to allow air to
pass through.
S2 (08:55):
They are invertebrates.
S3 (09:00):
Big word alert. Now, that is a big word. Invertebrate
means something without a backbone.
S2 (09:09):
That's right. Worms have no backbone. Or any other bones
for that matter. They don't have eyes, but they do
have two tiny patches on their head that allows them
to detect light, but they can't actually see. They can't
hear either. At least not like we hear worms here
(09:30):
by detecting vibrations through their skin.
S3 (09:34):
The biggest earthworm in the world lives in Australia. It's
the giant Gippsland worm, and it grows to more than
a meter long and more than two centimeters thick. That's
thicker than a dad thumb.
S2 (09:51):
There's a very beautiful earthworm that lives in a very
small area in Japan. It's about as long as your
arm from fingers to elbow and as thick as your
little finger. It's called a Kantaro, and it's colored a
beautiful bright blue.
S3 (10:12):
Worms move by stretching, then crunching up their bodies to
stop their bodies slipping. Earthworms have tiny, stiff bristles that
grip the soil.
S2 (10:25):
Big word alert. Bristles are short, stiff hairs, like the
ones on your toothbrush or on dad's chin when he
needs a shave.
S3 (10:35):
Hey, Geraldine, can I borrow that sheet of paper, please? Thanks.
The bristles are really tiny, but if we put the
worm on the sheet of paper, we should be able
to hear the scratching sounds the bristles make are. There.
(10:55):
Hear that?
S2 (10:57):
Well, I think so. Tell you what. If I put
one end of the cardboard tube next to my ear
and the other close to the worm, the sound should
be clearer. Oh, yes. It works. The tube blocks out
a lot of the background noise and I can hear
the bristles scratching quite clearly. That's why Happy Pants gave
(11:20):
us the tubes.
S3 (11:21):
Oh, we can listen in on all sorts of things.
Here's a caterpillar having morning tea. Let's listen to it munching.
S2 (11:33):
Oh, there'll be plenty of different things around under or
on this tree. It has lots of visitors.
S3 (11:40):
But I bet there are lots that we never notice.
S2 (11:43):
Well, you're right. We notice the big things like birds
and possums, but we never see the little things. There
are spiders that hide in the bark and caterpillars that
feast on the leaves.
S3 (11:56):
There are cicadas that sing in the summer and geckos
that hunt flies and moths amongst the branches.
S2 (12:03):
All these creatures need trees for their homes and supermarkets,
and in return they act like housekeepers. They tidy away
old leaves and recycle them into food for the tree roots.
They control pests which might harm the tree. They need
the tree, and the tree needs them.
S3 (12:24):
When everything balances out, nature acts like a sort of
web where everything has a use and a place. A
sort of family.
S5 (13:04):
Two. Hundred. Can. You find.
S1 (15:00):
I love wearing my happy pants while I'm listening to
Happy Pants.
S2 (15:04):
Did you know that trees can sort of talk to
each other? Not like we talk. Of course. Or even
like animals which pass their messages by sounds or body movements.
Trees use a helper. And that helper is a fungus.
S3 (15:23):
Fungus? Oh, you mean like mushrooms?
S2 (15:27):
Well, mushrooms are one kind of fungus, but there are many,
many different kinds. Most fungi live hidden, often underground. And
the part we see, like the mushrooms, is the bit
they send up carrying spore that can drift away on
the wind or the water to start a new fungus.
The rest of the fungus stays hidden. Fungi are not plants.
(15:52):
And they're not animals either. They belong to their own
special group. The fungus sends out long threads which snake
through the ground, searching out food sources and water. They
also take up minerals like phosphates, zinc, iron, copper.
S3 (16:12):
Some kinds of fungus share their minerals with trees. They
wrap themselves around the tree roots and exchange minerals for
some of the food the tree makes in its leaves.
That kind of sharing between two different kinds of life
is called symbiosis.
S2 (16:33):
Big word alert. Now that is a super big word.
Not many kids know that word. Symbiosis means shared life.
The tree needs the fungus and the fungus needs the tree,
their partners and both benefit because.
S3 (16:52):
The fungus sends out those threads for a long way.
They meet up with other threads from other trees and
make a sort of net of threads. If one tree
is being attacked by pests of some kind or some
harmful bacteria or something, it can send out a chemical
distress call that runs through the web and warns other trees.
(17:16):
Those trees can then do things to protect themselves, like
releasing chemicals that drive off pests or attract other insects
which will eat the pests. So although trees don't use
words and they need fungi to carry messages, they can
sort of talk to each other.
S2 (17:34):
We think of a tree as something by itself, and
we don't notice the huge family that lives in, on,
under and around it. Today's story is about a tree
like that, a beauty leaf. Tree beauty leaf trees grow
in the tropical north of Australia, and they're prized for
(17:55):
their fragrant flowers and beautiful leaves.
S1 (17:58):
Yay! It's story time.
S3 (18:01):
Beauty by Sarah Kendall. I have a small family, just
my mum and me. Mum says that one of the
most important things about family is helping each other. Our
dog Mary guards us and cackle and chuckle. Give us
their eggs. So I guess they're part of our family too.
(18:25):
The big beauty leaf tree shades our house, the yard
and my cubby. I reckon it should be included in
our family. I love our tree. I call her beauty. Mrs.
Lee lives next door. All alone. She hates our beauty
(18:46):
leaf tree. She hates how it drops seed pods in
her yard. She hates the leaves blowing into her gutters,
and she hates how its roots wriggle and creep into
her vegetable garden. Sometimes Mrs. Lee yells at mum over
the fence. Are you need to cut that tree down?
(19:07):
It's nothing but a nuisance. Makes me feel sad to
imagine our yard without beauty, no shade and no branches
to climb. Where would all the birds go? Sighs mum.
The more I think about it, the more I realise
how many animals depend on our tree. Lorikeets, cockatoos and
(19:33):
honeyeaters nibble and sip at the flowers. Spangled drongos gold
and swoop for bugs. Green ants trudge up the trunk
to build their nests, and native bees hover to gather pollen.
Tree frogs Nestle in the branches, and I have even
seen a tree snake slithering through the limbs. Scrubfowl roost
(19:58):
at night, disturbed by flying foxes and possums who squabble
and scrunch on seed pods. Geckos dart and scuttle after
moths and mosquitoes. Beauty has a big family cackle and chuckle.
Scratch in the shade and lizards hunt for insects. Bush cockroaches, crickets,
(20:19):
slaters and tiny millipedes scuttle in the leaf litter. I
dig my fingers into the rich darkness under the mulch
and find worms and fat, creamy grubs curled and sleeping
tiny white threads of fungus lace the soil and cling
to the roots. Beauty has a much larger family than
(20:42):
I thought. Mum says that all living things are part
of a network full of helpful connections. These are called
symbiotic relationships. The animals living with the beauty leaf tree
help in so many ways. Some pollinate flowers and spread seed.
(21:03):
Birds and insects recycle leaves into mulch, which becomes food
for the soil. Worms and grubs loosen and break down
the nutrients. Then fungus help tree roots absorb them. I
want to let Mrs. Lee know about Beauty's family. I
write a letter to her, carefully folded around one of
(21:27):
crackles smooth brown eggs, and place it in a small box,
which I push into a gap between our fences. When
I check after school, it's empty. Each morning I write
another letter, and each afternoon the egg and letter have
disappeared from the box. Mum tells me more about the beauty.
(21:49):
Leave symbiotic relationships. There are hunters like praying mantis ladybirds
and wasps that keep leaf munching insects under control. Some
tiny wasps lay their eggs inside caterpillars. There are even
tinier animals, microorganisms which live with beauty. Some of them
(22:13):
help with defence from disease and absorption of food and water,
even when it's hot and dry. Beauty uses sunlight, water,
and a gas called carbon dioxide to make food. This
is called photosynthesis, and it also makes the oxygen we breathe.
(22:34):
I close my eyes and imagine the spaces between things
blurring and forming a huge web of connection that embraces
every living thing in our yard and beyond. The next day,
I collect the box. This time it's not empty. It's
(22:55):
full of fresh herbs and some cherry tomatoes. There is
also a letter. You have taught me a lot about
your tree and now I understand why you love it.
Maybe I can teach you a bit about my vegetable garden. Mrs.
Lee now comes over for cups of teas with mum.
(23:17):
She swaps some of her vegetables for our eggs. And
once a week I help her in the garden. She
pays me a dollar to help her pick up beauty
leaf seeds in her yard. We have a symbiotic relationship.
And that makes Mrs. Lee family too.
S2 (23:34):
That was a reading of beauty written by Sandra Kendall.
The reader was Joe.
S3 (23:41):
Hmm. So what have we done today, Geraldine?
S2 (23:45):
What? We certainly had some big words.
S3 (23:47):
Oh, we did. And I can't wait to drop 1
or 2 into my conversations. There was aerate, which means
to let air pass through. Invertebrate, which is an animal
without a backbone. Bristles which are short, stiff hairs or.
And my favorite symbiosis. That means shared life.
S2 (24:12):
We had a story about a beauty tree, too. That
story told us a lot about all the members of
a tree family. Some we see and hear all the time,
like the birds and possums, and some live secret lives
and only the tree knows they're there.
S3 (24:31):
If there was anything in today's program about which you
would like to know more, you can find us on
Radio Vision Australia. Keep wearing those happy pants and we'll
catch you.
S2 (24:45):
Next.
S3 (24:46):
Time.
S6 (24:58):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area. We pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(25:22):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
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