How do explosive fruits such as touch-me-not and witch hazel scatter seeds?

Plants such as touch-me-not and witch hazel are categorized as active ballists, which are plants that forcibly eject their seeds using specialized mechanical adaptations.12

While some explosive fruits rely on high osmotic pressure to blast seeds away, others—including touch-me-not and witch hazel—utilize the physical tension generated as their fruit tissues dry out. As these tissues lose moisture, they develop a tendency to warp or contract. This process builds up mechanical tension until the fruit structure reaches a breaking point, resulting in an explosive and often audible release that flings the seeds away from the parent plant. This mechanism allows the plant to disperse its offspring beyond the immediate vicinity of the parent, reducing competition for resources like sunlight, water, and nutrients.123