The release of stored elastic energy often drives rapid movements in animal systems^{1, 2}, and plant components employing this mechanism should be able to move with similar speed. Here we describe how the flower stamens of the bunchberry dogwood (Cornus canadensis) rely on this principle to catapult pollen into the air as the flower opens explosively^{3, 4, 5}. Our high-speed video observations show that the flower opens in less than 0.5 ms — to our knowledge, the fastest movement so far recorded in a plant.

1. Department of Biology, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267, USA
2. Department of Physics, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267, USA
3. Biology Department, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio 44074, USA

Correspondence to: Joan Edwards¹ Email: joan.edwards@williams.edu

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