"R.C. Keely" wrote:

I'm in southern Ontario, Canada; hoping someone is familiar with this
plant (weed?) that has a "throwing" mechanism:

About 6 inches tall, is growing in patches in dry sunny areas, has pale
green, sparse needle-like leaves less than 1" long on upright stalks...
I noticed for the first time today its interesting ability to hurl many
small projectiles when the plant is lightly touched or walked on. It
throws them a couple feet up and out. They must be seeds of some kind,
but on examination appear as tiny green coils or springs, 2-3 mm in
size... does this ring a bell with anyone?


Perhaps Jewelweed? Also called 'Touch-me-not' in our part of the
world. [Upstate NY] We used the flowers as earrings when kids, and
I've used the juice to neutralize poison ivy juice with apparent
success.

http://altnature.com/jewelweed.htm

[this is an ad for a tincture that uses Jewelweed. I have no
experience with it, I use the juice straight from the plant. The
site has a good picture though.]

Jim