How a wayside weed builds up explosive force

Hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) Hairy bittercress is one of those plants that hurl their seeds in all directions to spread them effectively. A research team has now discovered that to do this, the plant uses a previously unknown mechanism which makes the seed pods contract and snap open, acting almost like a muscle. Dr. Gabriella Mosca at the University of Tübingen's Center for Plant Molecular Biology was one of the lead authors in this study headed by Dr. Angela Hay from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne. The results have now been published in Current Biology . Hairy bittercress ( Cardamine hirsuta ) is a herbaceous annual plant that grows up to 30 centimetres tall. "These pods consist of two long valves. When the seeds are ready for dispersal, these valves rapidly coil back, accelerating seeds at astonishing speeds - up to ten meters per second," Angela Hay reports.