Squirting cucumbers blast their seeds over distances hundreds of times their length, and now scientists say they have found the secret to how the plants do it.

They filmed the seed dispersal using a high-speed camera, which captured up to 8,600 frames per second. They then measured the fruit and stem volume both before and after dispersal, performed indentation tests, took CT scans of an intact cucumber, and monitored the fruit with time-lapse photography in the days leading up to the seed launch.

The hairy, ground-hugging vines of the squirting cucumber Ecballium elaterium might seem like an ordinary weedy plant. But take a closer look at the plant, which grows in dry, barren areas in the Mediterranean, and you’ll find “an extraordinary thing,” said Chris Thorogood, a botanist at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum.

A team led by the University of Oxford has solved a mystery that has intrigued scientists for centuries: how does the squirting cucumber squirt?

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 experiments,