Scientists have timed the world's fastest plant. It may take months to germinate, grow and flower, but once it starts firing pollen, it leaves rocket scientists gasping. It sends tiny granules of pollen to 10 times its own height at an acceleration of 24,000 metres a second per second.
Biologists at Williams College, Massachusetts, and Oberlin College, Ohio, report in Nature today how they recorded pollination from Cornus canadensis - the bunchwood dogberry, a common wildflower in North America - at 10,000 frames a second.
When the pollen is released, it rockets into the air to reach a speed of 3.1 metres per second in 0.3 milliseconds. The petals have to open with an acceleration of an estimated 22,000 metres a second per second, reaching a maximum velocity of about 6.7 metres a second within 0.2 milliseconds.
