Just wait, before long this sort of thing will make it into theatres everywhere. With a few million dollars for CGI (mostly explosions, naturally) and an overly dramatic title along the lines of ‘seeds of destruction’. The standard issue plot with hero, villain and helpless female character go without saying. And then, every two years for three decades, a sequel.
Possible plotlines:
– Terrorists threaten to detonate seedpods on Capitol Hill
– Alien seedpods on a collision course with New York
– Cold War drama: Heroic American scientists have to develop the Seedpod Bomb before the Soviets do
– Seedpods gain sentience and turn against their masters (The sequels practically write themselves.)
Snoofsays
When I was growing up, we had a garden full of Impatiens walleriana. I got quite good at collecting the ripe seedpods without popping them.
Zeppelinsays
“Seeds light up the sky like a fireworks display.”
We have Echinocystis lobata here, that stuff is a bloody menace. Not as spectacular as the squirting cucumber, the the seeds are expelled with great pressure once the pods are dried out.
robrosays
For some mysterious reason, this footage makes me realize the similarities between plants and animals.
rietpluimsays
I adore Impatiens glandulifera. My poor neighbors keep pulling it out ;)
Rich Woodssays
@Komarov #1:
With a few million dollars for CGI (mostly explosions, naturally) and an overly dramatic title along the lines of ‘seeds of destruction’.
Ecballium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cucurbitaceae containing a single species, Ecballium elaterium,[1] also called the squirting cucumber or exploding cucumber (but not to be confused with Cyclanthera explodens). It gets its unusual name from the fact that, when ripe, it squirts a stream of mucilaginous liquid containing its seeds, which can be seen with the naked eye. It is thus considered to have rapid plant movement.
It is native to Europe, northern Africa, and temperate areas of Asia.[2] It is grown as an ornamental plant elsewhere, and in some places it has naturalized.[2][3]
It is suspected to provide food for the caterpillars of the tortrix moth Phtheochroa rugosana.
This plant, and especially its fruit, is poisonous, containing cucurbitacins. In the ancient world it was considered to be an abortifacient.[4]
I have a fondness for violets, and I have several different colors of perennial and annual varieties. I have to deadhead them to prevent them taking over too much of the gardens. I also have garden balsam and wild Impatiens pallida which reseeds with abandon. I allow it to naturalize along my driveway and the sidewalk, because I think urban children should be exposed to flowers, the profligacy of nature, and the wonders of exploding seedpods.
When the seed pods mature, they eventually pop open with great force. My home office window faces a few of them, and during the summer I’ll get the occasional ‘tink tink’ of them hitting my windows. They can travel quite a ways This one I found growing out of the side of the evaporative cooler on my roof, 20 or 30 ft away form the nearest one http://dbdev2.pharmacy.arizona.edu/miscjunk/BOP_in_cooler.jpg
Just wait, before long this sort of thing will make it into theatres everywhere. With a few million dollars for CGI (mostly explosions, naturally) and an overly dramatic title along the lines of ‘seeds of destruction’. The standard issue plot with hero, villain and helpless female character go without saying. And then, every two years for three decades, a sequel.
Possible plotlines:
– Terrorists threaten to detonate seedpods on Capitol Hill
– Alien seedpods on a collision course with New York
– Cold War drama: Heroic American scientists have to develop the Seedpod Bomb before the Soviets do
– Seedpods gain sentience and turn against their masters (The sequels practically write themselves.)
When I was growing up, we had a garden full of Impatiens walleriana. I got quite good at collecting the ripe seedpods without popping them.
“Seeds light up the sky like a fireworks display.”
*eyebrow* Do they really?
We have Echinocystis lobata here, that stuff is a bloody menace. Not as spectacular as the squirting cucumber, the the seeds are expelled with great pressure once the pods are dried out.
For some mysterious reason, this footage makes me realize the similarities between plants and animals.
I adore Impatiens glandulifera. My poor neighbors keep pulling it out ;)
@Komarov #1:
Would a low-budget ‘Seeds of Death‘ do? Or even a ‘Seeds of Doom‘?
Anyway, to continue with what I actually came here to say:
I knew that video clip seemed familiar.
That squirting cucumber in the video was certainly impressive!
According to Wikipedia:
“Squirting cucumber” *snicker*
I have a fondness for violets, and I have several different colors of perennial and annual varieties. I have to deadhead them to prevent them taking over too much of the gardens. I also have garden balsam and wild Impatiens pallida which reseeds with abandon. I allow it to naturalize along my driveway and the sidewalk, because I think urban children should be exposed to flowers, the profligacy of nature, and the wonders of exploding seedpods.
With a little more energy and naivete, this could explain how life came to earth from mars.
We have Desert Bird of Paradise all over our yard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesalpinia_gilliesii
When the seed pods mature, they eventually pop open with great force. My home office window faces a few of them, and during the summer I’ll get the occasional ‘tink tink’ of them hitting my windows. They can travel quite a ways This one I found growing out of the side of the evaporative cooler on my roof, 20 or 30 ft away form the nearest one http://dbdev2.pharmacy.arizona.edu/miscjunk/BOP_in_cooler.jpg