Snap, crack and pop of explosive fruit

Abstract

There is an increasing appreciation for the role of physical forces in plant development. Mechanics are fundamental to how explosive fruit eject their seeds, and recent studies have successfully combined mechanics with developmental genetics to help explain how these dispersal traits are produced and how they evolved. Computational modeling is used more and more to address developmental questions, and explosive fruit are particularly good systems for combining biology and modeling approaches. Finite element models have been recently used to explore questions such as: Why do touch-me-not species with similar fruits, differ so much in how efficiently they transfer stored energy to eject seeds? And how do popping cress fruits use the expansive force of turgor pressure for tissue contraction?