a german friend of mine saw a documentary, i think on tv, which she
said was called 'forbidden fruits'. the subject was the evolution of
plants, especially their complex life cycles that sometimes involve
elaborate interaction with other animal and plant species. one
memorable image was that of a crab grabbing a coconut.

i would like to see it.

The documentary called "Verbotene Früchte"  is a part of the ZDF
(Channel in Germany like NBC) series "Wunderbare Welt" Wonderful
World.
   
The page for this individual show is available here:
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/13/0,1872,2035341,00.html

A bad translation is avilable here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/13/0,1872,2035341,00.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/13/0,1872,2035341,00.html%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff

Pictures from this show are here:
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/mediathek/0,1903,SS-2035570,00.html

ZDF rarely sells video copies of their products and if you don't
undertstand German that would also be a problem.

Nevertheless, you should email their service for missed shows:
programmverwertung@zdf.de 

You can request a copy of a show that you missed. (Verbotene Früchte,
aired on 25. April 2003, 16.15 Uhr )

They may grant it to you since they are a publically funded station.
Make sure you say that you only want a  copy for your private use at
home.

V