Various plants and fungi have evolved ingenious devices to disperse their spores. One such mechanism is the cavitation-triggered catapult of fern sporangia. The spherical sporangia enclosing the spores are equipped with a row of 12 to 13 specialized cells, the annulus. When dehydrating, these cells induce a dramatic change of curvature in the sporangium, which is released abruptly after the cavitation of the annulus cells. The entire ejection process is reminiscent of human-made catapults with one notable exception: The sporangia lack the crossbar that arrests the catapult arm in its returning motion. We show that much of the sophistication and efficiency of the ejection mechanism lies in the two very different time scales associated with the annulus closure.

Leptosporangiate ferns have evolved an ingenious cavitation catapult to disperse their spores. The mechanism relies almost entirely on the annulus, a row of 12 -25 cells, which successively: (i) stores energy by evaporation of the cells' content, (ii) triggers the catapult by internal cavitation, and (iii) controls the time scales of energy release to ensure efficient spore ejection. The confluence of these three biomechanical functions within the confines of a single structure suggests a level of sophistication that goes beyond most man-made devices where specific structures or parts rarely serve more than one function. Here, we study in detail the three phases of spore ejection in the sporangia of the fern Polypodium aureum. For each of these phases, we have written the governing equations and measured the key parameters. For the opening of the sporangium, we show that the structural design of the annulus is particularly well suited to inducing bending deformations in response to osmotic volume changes. Moreover, the measured parameters for the osmoelastic design lead to a near-optimal speed of spore ejection (approx. 10 m s -1 ). Our analysis of the trigger mechanism by cavitation points to a critical cavitation pressure of approximately 2100 + 14 bar, a value that matches the most negative pressures recorded in the xylem of plants. Finally, using high-speed imaging, we elucidated the physics leading to the sharp separation of time scales (30 versus 5000 ms) in the closing dynamics. Our results highlight the importance of the precise tuning of the parameters without which the function of the leptosporangium as a catapult would be severely compromised.

We propose a model that captures the dynamics of a carnivorous plant, Utricularia inflata. This plant possesses tiny traps for capturing small aquatic animals. Glands pump water out of the trap, yielding a negative pressure difference between the plant and its surroundings. The trap door is set into a meta-stable state and opens quickly as an extra pressure is generated by the displacement of a potential prey. As the door opens, the pressure difference sucks the animal into the trap. We write an ODE model that captures all the physics at play. We show that the dynamics of the plant is quite similar to neuronal dynamics and we analyse the effect of a white noise on the dynamics of the trap.