The Explosive Salad Green Called Shotweed

Known as shotweed, this common garden plant uses a built-in mechanical trigger to launch its seeds. If you brush against a ripe pod, it violently snaps open to propel seeds up to several feet away.

While many people treat this plant as a persistent garden weed, it is actually a surprisingly tasty addition to salads. Its leaves have a spicy, peppery kick similar to arugula. Because the seed pods are so sensitive to movement, the plant can spread across an entire yard in just a single season. Its ballistic seed dispersal is a fascinating evolutionary survival strategy.