Her Doing#DidYouKnow 'Open sesame' is actually a real thing? 😃
(Appropriately so, since these small-but-mighty seeds are a nutritional treasure!)
#Sesame seeds are found in four-chambered (locules) capsules, and are dispersed by dehiscence (new word for me!) or 'shattering' - upon maturity, sesame pods split open.
This can be driven by changes in humidity ('hygroscopic movement'), where as moisture in the plant evaporates & the plant dries, it bends and twists, and pods split open.
In sesame pods, initially the capsule splits at the top, creating an opening to each of the four locules. The walls of each locule bend outward, then split and twist as the seed falls from the capsule - and the process keeps accelerating.
As the researchers wrote: 'the non-uniform relative thickness of the layers promotes a graded bi-axial bending, leading to the complex capsule opening movement.'
(Now y'all know why I kept a separate science account! 😄 )
I know this is all pretty nerdy - but I think it's cool (I especially like seed dispersal & germination), and it was the first article I read on 'Awkward Botany' a few years ago, a site of short articles with just enough science to be interesting, but also still approachable, & I wanted to share that. 😊
https://awkwardbotany.com/2022/03/30/dispersal-by-open-sesame/
