Iglica pospolita - roślinna katapulta i ruchliwe nasiona (eng. Erodium cicutarium - a plant catapult and moving seeds)

The plant inability to exhibit locomotion is one of the most important distinguishing features that makes plants different to animals. The spread of diasporas is the plants most important mechanism of colonizing new habitats. Erodium cicutarium use two types of autochory simultaneously: ballochory and herpochory. This plant can catapult its seeds into the air by itself, and they themselves have the ability to move autonomously, which allows diasporas to bury themselves in the ground. As the humidity changes the awn of mericarp straightens and twists alternately. Thanks to successive cycles of changes in humidity and thus changes of mericarp awn shape, the seed penetrates into the soil to a depth of several millimeters for succesfull germination.