Timelapse Photography Captures Erodium Seed that Drills Itself Into the Ground

Photography Tips  •  Time-lapse Photography

When you really slow things down and take a good look at the earth and organic life around us, when you stop to smell the roses so to speak, the wonders of Mother Nature can be surprising. Here, we really see the magic of nature with this slow-motion timelapse video of the self-planting seed, Erodium, as it drills itself into the ground:

The seed of Erodium cicutarium (also known as Common Stork’s Bill) amazingly drills itself into the earth like a screw in order to plant the seed and sprout.

It depends purely on humidity, which the spiraled fibers absorb, to power the plant. As you can see in the video, Mother Nature is left-handed in this case, as the plant drills itself into the ground in a counter-clockwise motion to drill in and clockwise to uncoil.

Normally, the moisture in the air will begin the process, but for the sake of the video, water was added to speed things along. It’s a really in-depth and beautiful look into something we don’t normally see or acknowledge.