# Seed Spitting Plant



## FeralFemale

I came across the coolest plant yesterday and I can't believe I've never seen it before. It was a little bushy thing, about a foot - foot and a half high. I spotted it because it looked sort of like rosemary, except with thin leaves and the stem wasn't woody (that I could tell). My husband got up real close to it to examine it and touched it and let out a yelp.

I thought he was stung by something but he was laughing. When he touched the plant, all these seeds spit out at him, hit him in the face and suprised him. It was the coolest thing. The lightest touch and all these seeds would spring out. They could go pretty far, too.

Any idea what the plant is? I've been in the boonies all my life and never even heard of this that I can recall.


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## caballoviejo

Several plants do that. Jewel weed is somewhat like that.


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## FeralFemale

No, it definitely wasn't jewelweed. I am very familiar with jewelweed. Jewelweed isn't even flowering yet here. That is another thing I thought was weird, that the plant would already be at that stage of development so early in the season. Most of the dandelions haven't even gone to seed yet.


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## Wildcrofthollow

It looked like rosemary?

Hmm most of the plants that spit seeds like you describe are in the mustard family. The most notorious is Garlic Mustard, a terribly invasive alien that is taking over the stream bottoms and river banks here in the east. If you have it you will likely never get rid of it. We watch carefully that it doesn't invade our native plant sanctuary.

Some of the mustards have smallish leaves that may look a little like rosemary, perhaps that is it?


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## Island of Blueb

Google "artillery plant". Betcha that is it.


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## FeralFemale

no...it doesn't look like any of those either. 

Here is a really, really, really rough drawing of what it looked like.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b6db23b3127cce8942dc5b657800000026108AZMm7NozctC


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## FeralFemale

By the way, that garlic mustard is everywhere. I was wondering what it is. Is it edible?


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## MELOC

i have some of that seed spitting stuff too. it was ironic, i read this thread and walked my dog. i bent down to pet him and got blasted in the face by seeds. i also have garlic mustard everywhere but i think this stuff is different.


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## FeralFemale

That is pretty ironic.  

They are cool little plants. Watch, it will turn out to be some super bad invasive species.


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## caballoviejo

Your drawing does look like a mustard in fruit.


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