Image Credit: Gif made by GIFsBOOM from Smithsonian Channel - YouTube[1]

“Seeds disappear into the distance like rockets”, is a well fit quote for Botany Oddity that was made by a Smithsonian Channel video on Youtube.[1] Once ripe, the Squirting Cucumber, or Ecballium elaterium, has built up a high internal pressure in its fruit. After the plant is disturbed, the fruit releases the built up pressure with a rocket-like propulsion. Instead of blasting out flames and exhaust, seeds and a slimy liquid squirt out of the stem hole to colonize nearby soil.[2] Although cucumber is in the name, don’t eat the fruit. Along with other ill effects, one major consequence of ingestion of the fruit includes death.[3]