True Facts: Plants That Explode

Amazing Facts About Seeds That Explode

On a day like today, you and I might think of staying indoors, enjoying a cozy day. But for liverwort, an unfortunately named plant related to moss, this is a moment of explosive action. These plants have learned to harness the energy of raindrops to disperse their spores in a dramatic fashion.

When liverworts are ready to reproduce, they create structures that look like tiny cups holding spores, which are essentially baby liverworts. When a raindrop falls into these cups, the spores are launched up to three feet away. Plants only need soil, CO2, and water, but they can use water for some fascinating purposes, like creating explosive mechanisms.

One of the simplest examples is found in the squirting cucumber. As the fruit fills up with seeds and a watery gel, pressure builds inside until it detaches from the stem and sprays seeds everywhere. Though messy, this mechanism effectively spreads the plant’s seeds.

Other plants have developed more sophisticated ways to spread their seeds. For instance, the flowers of the bunchberry dogwood have a clever method. These flowers start off with their petals sealed in a point, held together by a strip of tissue. When pressure builds up inside the flower, touching a tiny trigger causes the flower to explode, shooting pollen out.

Mosses in the genus Sphagnum use drying out to create an explosive force. As the cells on the outside of their spore capsules dry, they collapse and create pressure until the capsule bursts, releasing spores into the air.

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Plants like witch hazel use drying to launch their seeds. As the seed pods dry, they shrink and exert pressure on the seeds until they are shot out with a spin, enhancing their aerodynamics. Similarly, the hoto tree and hairy wild petunia also spin their seeds to help them travel farther.

Some plants use humidity changes to bend their seed pods and launch seeds. For example, pine cones open up as they dry, and creeping wood sorrel uses a bending mechanism to release its seeds explosively.

Horsetail spores have tiny, humidity-sensitive strips that help them move and find suitable spots to open up. Wild oats use a similar mechanism, with their seeds twisting and jumping to find a place to plant themselves.

The stoebe seed has a sophisticated mechanism involving twisting "awns" that allow it to move and plant itself efficiently. This design has inspired new methods for planting seeds using similar technology.

Exploding seeds are a reminder of the incredible ingenuity found in nature. Just as these seeds burst forth with new life, we too should find ways to grow and thrive.

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