Three months ago the white bracts surrounding the greenish blossoms of the Bunchberry covered the banks by the lake. It gets a red round berry in the fall but I haven’t been back to the same spot to see if any ripened or if they are good tasting and the chipmunk eaten them all like they do with my raspberries. Cornus canadensis, in the dogwood family,  is native to the northern half of North America.

The bunchberry is incapable of self-pollination, so it needs insects that rapidly move from flower to flower. Bunchberry stamens are designed like miniature medieval trebuchets – specialized catapults that maximize throwing distance by having the payload (pollen in the anther) attached to the throwing arm (filament) by a hinge or flexible strap.  This motion takes place in less than half a millisecond and the pollen experiences two to three thousand times the force of gravity.

The Bunchberry has one of the fastest plant actions found so far requiring a camera capable of shooting 10,000 frames per second to catch the action so since my camera isn’t capable of catching the catapult action, I will just have to take the still blossom pictures (and maybe some berries if the chipmunks leave any).

Catapulting Bunchberry