Meet the cucumber with a built-in water pistol

The Ecballium elaterium, or "squirting cucumber," explosively ejects its seeds using a precisely timed and engineered sequence involving internal pressure, stem stiffening, optimal launch angles, and rotation to ensure wide and efficient dispersal. A recent study using high-speed imaging and modeling revealed this seemingly chaotic event is in fact a finely tuned mechanism evolved to reduce competition and may even inspire future engineering applications.

Read the article at https://www.paperleap.com/blog/articles/meet-the-cucumber-with-a-built-in-water-pistol-0ccccu