World's fastest plant

David Pescovitz 8:34 am Fri May 13, 2005

Canada's bunchberry dogwood is the fastest plant on the planet. The flower pops open in less than 1/2 millisecond to fire off its pollen, reports scientist Joan Edwards and her colleagues from Williams College and Oberlin College in this week's issue of Nature. From Discovery Channel News:

"Bunchberry stamens are designed like miniature medieval trebuchets — specialized catapults that maximize throwing distance by having the payload attached to the throwing arm by a hinge or flexible strap," Edwards said.

The trebuchet allows the flower to throw pollen further than a simple catapult would, she said.

Link (Thanks, Bhuvana Iyer!)

UPDATE: BB reader Jon smartly suggests that botanist Joan Edwards (hopefully) meant "evolved" not "designed" in her quote above!

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