Creeping dogwood, Isle Royale National Park, 2015.

This plant goes by many names: Canadian dwarf cornel, Canadian bunchberry, quatretemps, crackerberry or creeping dogwood (Cornus canadensis). This slow-growing herbaceous subshrub forms a carpet-like mat on the forest floor. Interestingly, each flower has highly elastic petals that flip backward, releasing springy filaments that are cocked underneath the petals. The filamets snap upward flinging pollen in a motion that lasts less than half a millisecond. The pollen experiences two to three thousand times the force of gravity. This is one of the fastest plant actions found so far, requiring 10,000 frames per second to catch the action.

canada dogwood bunchberry flower bloom cornus canadensis canadian dwarf cornel quatretemps crackerberry creeping dogwood dogwood subshrub isle royale national park petals plant actions pollen experiences two canadian bunchberry three thousand times plant subshrub forms carpet like mat forest floor springy filaments pollen action national parks gallery high resolution michigan

2015

National Parks Gallery

https://npgallery.nps.gov/

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