Factoid

[Paul Selden]

>At 05:40 PM 01-22-98 -0700, Mary Barkworth wrote:
>>A book about plants for children* comments that "the Squirting Cucumber
>>fills up with water and squirts its seeds out.  They travel at about 60
>>miles an hour".  Which species is it?  Does anyone know a seed source?  No,
>>I am not planning to check the data, just aim the fruit.  And yes, if
>>someone knows of a faster seed, I would like to hear of it.
>
>Ecballium elaterium (L. ) A. Rich.  (Cucurbitaceae).  Seeds mixed with a
>watery fluid are squirted from the hole left when the ripe fruit drops from
>the pedicel; squirting is caused by contraction of the pericarp.  Fruit is
>the source of a purgative called elaterium.  (Willis' A. Dictionary of
>Flowering Plants and Ferns, ed. 8 by H. K. Airy Shaw, 1973).  Not sure who
>the botanist with the timing gun was.
>
>

A coincidence: I was just going through some slides yesterday, which were
taken in the south of France (Camargue, August) last year. A couple are of
this Squirting Cucumber. We had great fun exploding some of the cucumbers.
The innocuous-looking thing would give you a real fright if you brushed
against it and it exploded. That the juice is apparently irritating, I
didn't bother to find out.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Paul A. Selden                              Phone: ## 161 275 3296
Department of Earth Sciences                     Fax: ## 161 275 3947
University of Manchester                         Home: ## 1625 582758
Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingdom                   Website: http://quercus.ge.man.ac.uk

============================> Naturefile <============================

Macintosh software for wildlife recording and collection management:

      http://quercus.ge.man.ac.uk/Naturefile/Information.html
======================================================================