Pond lily flowers submerge to ripen then rise to pop seeds out

Evidence

Once the showy brandybottle flowers have accomplished their goal of attracting pollinators, they bend below the surface for several weeks, suddenly reclusive while their ovaries swell. When the seeds are mature, the stalks straighten again and lift up above the water the fruit—a curiously flask-shaped pod with a brightly colored lid that looks like its namesake, a miniature brandy cask about the size of a shot glass. I’ve never witnessed it myself, but I’m told that the seeds pop dramatically from the pod onto the surface, earning one of their other names, spatterdock. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 346

Categorization

• CANDY: The brandybottle lily dunking itself under water to ripen and then springing up to burst its seeds is a tweetable oddity of plant biology.
• SHARE: Worth sending to anyone who kayaks ponds or teaches aquatic botany — the spatterdock popping behavior is a niche delight.