New research into the biomechanics of explosive seed dispersal in squirting cucumbers (Ecballium elaterium) reveals how these plants have adapted a suite of unique traits that help propel their ...

An odd little gourd called the squirting cucumber has an explosive reproductive strategy that has intrigued naturalists since the days of the Roman Empire. Squirting cucumbers blast their seeds over ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A still showing the jet ejected from a squirting cucumber, which carries its seeds distances of up to 32 feet away from the mother ...

This revealed that the seed projection method of the squirting cucumber has been fine-tuned to ensure near-optimal dispersal and the success of the plant over generations. For instance, making the ...

Take a look at squirting cucumber explosive seed dispersal in real time and slowed down. Credit: Helen Gorges/CC BY-NC-ND One doesn’t normally associate ballistics with botany, but most of us don’t ...

A team led by the University of Oxford has solved a mystery that has intrigued scientists for centuries: how does the squirting cucumber squirt? The findings, achieved through a combination of ...

OXFORD, England — In the Mediterranean countryside, gardeners have learned to approach a certain cucumber with caution. Not because it’s poisonous or thorny, but because this seemingly innocent plant ...

“Crazy plant,” cooed Helen Gorges, a biomechanist at Kiel University, after witnessing the ballistic seed dispersal of the squirting cucumber. In plant biomechanics, there are few vistas that can ...

Three summers ago, Kiel University biomechanist Stainslav Gorb, returned to Germany after a vacation in Turkey with a present for Ph.D. student Helen Gorges. "He came back and was like, 'Helen, I ...

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