Exploding Cucumbers

When we visited Hvar, we walked to an abandoned village where we were going to eat lunch at Berti’s restaurant. While we were walking, we saw cliffs and olive trees and grape vineyards. On the way, we also saw something that surprised my Dad. It was a plant next to the road. I have never seen a plant that looked like this one. It had leaves at the bottom and a stalk with an ovoid fruit attached to the end. We took some videos of this plant that surprised my Dad.

The Latin name of this plant is Ecballium elaterium. This name uses a system called binomial nomenclature that a Swedish biologist named Carl Linneaus developed. This system is like a pyramid. It starts very broad (for example, Kingdom) and as it goes up the pyramid it gets narrower (for example, Family). Each organism's name is the species and the genus. The Ecballium elaterium is the only species in its genus. Another example is the little owl, or the scientific name Athene noctua, which is named after Athena and is native to Greece.

Ecoballium elaterium spreads its seeds by producing pressure inside the ovoid seed pod and then when something (like a finger!) touches the plant or the stalk, it releases its pressure, shooting some liquid and with that liquid, out comes the seeds.