# Squirting Pilea involucrata!



## rsain (Nov 5, 2011)

Greetings all,

The other day when I was misting the tank my wife and I observed some interesting 'smoke' coming out of the flowers of our pilea (we think it's an involucrata). Upon closer inspection we realized it was actually a little water jet coming out of the flower. 

When misted directly on the flower the water builds up and eventually the flower opens extremely fast and a jet of water squirts to the top of the viv. 

We then decided to replicate and actually obtain some evidence. That evidence is here in a short video. 







I see that it's a bit hard to identify in this small window so you can just go here: http://youtu.be/KD-jlyllpAA


- ryan


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## mordoria (Jan 28, 2011)

If I'm not mistaken, that how they pollinate themselves. Ive seen another video of this (on DB). I few weeks later, the person had random pileas popping up. It either shoots pollen or seeds. Ill try and find it.
Super cool to see.


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## Gnarly (Mar 3, 2011)

That's pretty interesting. I am having a hard time seeing it in the video, but that might be due to me viewing it on an iPhone.
I also have this plant and I'd like to see this type of activity from it.


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## mordoria (Jan 28, 2011)

Found it!

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/plants/69197-moon-valley-pilea.html


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## rsain (Nov 5, 2011)

Gnarly said:


> That's pretty interesting. I am having a hard time seeing it in the video, but that might be due to me viewing it on an iPhone.
> I also have this plant and I'd like to see this type of activity from it.


The puffs are somewhat difficult to see - my camera is not the best. If you watch where the cursor is you'll see a few of them go off. It really looks like little puffs of smoke.

- ryan


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## rsain (Nov 5, 2011)

mordoria said:


> If I'm not mistaken, that how they pollinate themselves. Ive seen another video of this (on DB). I few weeks later, the person had random pileas popping up. It either shoots pollen or seeds. Ill try and find it.
> Super cool to see.



Ha! I had no idea what was going on.  Could spell trouble though - these things grow super fast in my viv. That plant tripled in size (at least) in 3 weeks. I've already had to cut it back. 

Thanks for finding the link and the info.

- ryan


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## mordoria (Jan 28, 2011)

Vivarium Build :: Valentines037.mp4 video by PeanutbuttER987654321 - Photobucket

Yea it can get really large. I have some that umbrellas over the canopy. It comes back everytime.


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