As a performance piece, the pageant of botanic superlatives is more like a tableau vivant than any Olympic games; most competitions of time are measured in days and centuries, and the actors are rewarded for endurance and form. On this stage, however, there is the frenetic performance of a certain contestant: Launching pollen into the air in a third of the time it takes a bullet to leave a rifle barrel, it is a superlative example of botanic ballistics, engineering, and reproductive design.
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