back to article Self-planting plant discovered in Brazil

Those Register readers who possess a garden yet are not fond of spending time on their knees clutching a trowel – take heart! Science has found a possible answer to your needs with the discovery of a type of plant which does not merely release its seeds, but actually bends down and buries them in the soil for you. The quite …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Next up they'll be walking around

    and flying about in asteroids and the like before arriving on some unsuspecting planet full of people they can gobble up

  2. justincormack

    surely?

    This is not new. Peanuts do that for example (thats why they are called groundnuts). They flower and then bury the seed underground...

  3. Phil Endecott

    Peanuts

    I think peanuts do this, don't they?

    1. Nigel 11
      Thumb Up

      Yes, ...

      Peanuts do. That was my first thought. In fact the latin mame for the peanut is Arachis hypogaea, hypogaea means "under the earth".

  4. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    Bending down.

    "However rather than kissing a ring, the flexible S genuflexa..."

    Well obviously. If it did that it would have been called S Rimmerii.....

  5. Asiren
    Trollface

    Close, but no cigar...

    genu - knee

    flect - bend

    To bend your knee, or kneel. (As when greeting nobility.)

    1. Armando 123

      Or doing The Vatican Rag. #oldfogy

  6. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Strawberry plants

    Have done one better.

    They clone themselves by growing long "whiskers" which bend under their own weight until they touch the ground whereupon they sprout roots and that spot becomes the center of a new plant.

    1. Nigel 11
      Thumb Down

      Clones

      Lots of plants spread themselves by extending tendrils or roots which then develop into another plant. Some even detach the clone and let it float away down a river. If there isn't a plant which grows clonelets with barbs to hook onto a passing animal's hair, I'll be very surprised.

      But these offspring are all clones, and if that was the only form of reproduction, the parasites would catch up and wipe out the species. Plants, like animals, need sexual reproduction to shuffle their genes and keep ahead of the parasites.

  7. Adrian Jones

    I'll stick with the Madagasca Jewel I have sat next to my desk at work. It fires its (poisonous) seeds about five metres across the office.

    Hasn't killed anybody though. (Yet.)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I want one

      I can think of several desks I could put it on

  8. Disco-Legend-Zeke
    Pint

    Other...

    ...plants do this also. The one that comes to mind is the peanut.

    One of my favorites for seed distribution strategy is the Bird of Paradise. As they dry, the seed pods build up torque, which is suddenly released with a loud popping sound, flinging the seeds up to 10 meters.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Himalayan Balsam

      Whilst being an invasive pset species, does have very satisfying seed pods, a gentle tap or squeeze of which will cause them to explosively uncoil like a spring and fling their seeds quite some distance.

  9. Gavin King
    Coat

    I for one welcome...

    our botano-genuflectory overlords.

    The one with the Yates Garden Guide, thanks.

  10. Purlieu

    I. for one

    welcome our new Brazilian geocarpal overlords

    .... of course what we really want is weeds that pull themselves up

  11. stitch

    Peanut

    Is this not the same behaviour as the common-or-garden peanut, otherwise known as the _groundnut_ ?

  12. atomic jam
    Stop

    Next up

    they'll be coming over here, taking our jobs and marrying or women!

  13. Alister
    Alert

    Triffic!

    Does this plant have little stems each side of the main bole, and a long whippy tendril thing at the top?

    And does it rattle to itself at night??

    Ooeerrr!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Really?

    What about spider plants, they constantly start sprouting new shoots that provide roots, all they needs is to touch down on soil rather than in mid-air like we keep them in pots.

    Most fruit trees drop the fruit with the seed, the fruit rots and kick starts the seedlings gorwing.

    1. Nigel 11
      Thumb Down

      Wrong reason

      That's not the why of fruit!

      The fruit is intended to tempt an animal to eat it, seeds and all. The seed survives its trip through the animal's digestive system, and is deposited elsewhere, along with a nice little lump of manure. Plants particularly appreciate omnivores ... the manure of an omnivore will be richer in nitrogen.

      Tomato seeds survive not just the human digestive tract but the metropolitan sewerage system, and cause serious problems when they arrive and germinate in the filter beds.

      I've always wondered what sort of animal it is that eats a mango complete with the massive pip. Water buffalo?

  15. Arbuthnot Darjeeling
    Happy

    Where's

    the lawn that mows itself?

    Or grass that grows 2.5 cm and then stops?

    Come on Monsanto...

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Low maintenance grass is available

      See http://nomowgrass.com/

      I've not tried it, but it looks like fun.

      GJC

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        ... Low maintenance grass is available

        smokes itself, does it?

  16. jake Silver badge

    Tomatos do this, too.

    As do peas, beans, and most other legumes.

    This is considered news in botanical science? The mind boggles ...

    1. Britt Johnston
      Pint

      good life

      When the man spent half his life getting fron the Baltic to the beach, finding a species is icing on the cake.

      Good for him.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'first reported geocarpic species *of this family*'

    (from the actual paper <http://www.pensoft.net/inc/journals/download.php?fileId=2783&fileTable=J_GALLEYS>, my emphasis, purdy pikchas on page 51).

    Still, interesting article.

    Suggest to everyone, when walking down the street or out anywhere, to look at corners and tucked-away nooks and find the very little things that grow there, whole worlds of beauty in themselves (blake said it right), lost in oversight and the rush to the office, shops, school.

    (and @Vladimir Plouzhnikov et al, this is called runnering; it doesn't involve the seeds but baby plants; cloning I suppose)

  18. Armando 123
    Devil

    Need this

    If it takes out the fishmint that we can't get rid of without nuclear weaponry, I'm all for it. And if it gets out of hand, I'll get honey badgers. (What could possibly go wrong then?)

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Feed me Seymour!

    All you pod people line up over here.....

  20. jukejoint

    Terribly fascinating and all,

    yet check out the seedpod of the 'Devil's Claw' plant to marvel at its 'intelligent design'.

    Do an image seach. What elegance of form and function! This seed casing wraps itself completely around a passing animal's leg and holds on for dear life...operating on the same principle as the parking lots where exits are marked with 'severe tire damage' signs - the old reverse-barb trick!

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