Videos of super high speed spore release mechanisms

Pilobolus kleinii filmed at 50,000 fps

From a 2008 paper published in the journal PLoS ONE, The Fastest Flights in Nature: High-Speed Spore Discharge Mechanisms among Fungi.

A variety of spore discharge processes have evolved among the fungi. Those with the longest ranges are powered by hydrostatic pressure and include “squirt guns” that are most common in the Ascomycota and Zygomycota. In these fungi, fluid-filled stalks that support single spores or spore-filled sporangia, or cells called asci that contain multiple spores, are pressurized by osmosis. Because spores are discharged at such high speeds, most of the information on launch processes from previous studies has been inferred from mathematical models and is subject to a number of errors.

Two videos viewable at bangocibumbumpuluj, you can download the rest here (scroll down to "Supporting Information")

[#1 posted by Takuan , February 24, 2009 11:49 AM]

amen, been there.

[#2 posted by Jarvik7 , February 24, 2009 12:13 PM]

Thats almost as fast as my mushroom shoots its spores.

[#3 posted by GeekDadCanada , February 24, 2009 1:39 PM]

See how fast Spore is without DRM?

[#4 posted by Viadd , February 24, 2009 6:58 PM]

And why does the pilobolus require such a high-speed spore ejection? If this is the same species I am thinking of, it is a fungus that can see (though poorly). Its spore ejector is actually a single-pixel eye that points at the Sun. When it senses a sudden darkness, it fires its spores in the direction the Sun was.

That's because the likely cause of darkness is a fly passing by. When spores hit the fly, they stick, grow, kill the fly, and there s now a rich nutrient source for the next generation.

Nature is vicious, but cool.