The High-Flying Physics of a Plant’s Exploding Fruits (nytimes.com)

Somewhat common in the eastern US is Wisteria, which also has an exploding seed pod.

Dwarf mistletoe, a parasite on various pine trees, use hydrostatic pressure to expel seeds at speeds up to 60 mph. (Years ago I worked on computer models of forest growth, health, and diseases—one of which is mistletoe.)

http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/lessons/miscellaneous...

Reminds me of my favorite title for a scientific (engineering) paper ever:

Shooting Mechanisms in Nature: A Systematic Review

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

(disclosure: I work in the same department as the authors, although not at all involved in this work)