Geometry-driven jets underlie dispersal of plants and fungi by raindrops
Abstract
The impact of droplets on concave surfaces is poorly understood, although it is relevant to a mode of dispersal of reproductive units that has evolved independently in several species of plants and fungi. This mode of dispersal relies on splash-cups, specialized organs that use raindrops to disperse reproductive units away from the parent organism. We investigated the impact of droplets on conical cavities that mimic splash-cups. We observed the formation of two types of jets, lateral and upward, which appear relevant to dispersal in plants and in fungi, respectively. We built a minimal kinematic model that explains jet formation, involving the motion of fluid particles along geodesics that geometrically focus on the cone surface. We used this model to predict cup angles that optimize jet formation and obtained two separate maxima for lateral and upward jets consistent with the geometries of natural splash-cups. Altogether, our work provides a geometric framework to study impact of droplets on nonflat surfaces and illustrates physical constraints underlying plant and fungal morphogenesis.
Related
- Nascent RNA-mediated recruitment and R-loop suppression underlie FUS-driven enhancement of transcription
- Systematic differences in protein stability underlie species-specific developmental tempo
- Distinct activation mechanisms underlie ligand efficacy at a GPCR
- Population-specific transcriptomic shifts underlie secondary metabolic diversification in Aspergillus flavus Link and the domestication of Aspergillus oryzae (Ahlb.).
- MineGraph facilitates plastid and mitochondrial graph pangenome analysis in plants
BibTeX
@article{bratu2026geometrydriven,
title = {{Geometry-driven jets underlie dispersal of plants and fungi by raindrops}},
author = {Ana-Maria Bratu and Valentin Laplaud and Antoine Garcia and Christophe Josserand and Stéphanie Drevensek and Camille Duprat and Arezki Boudaoud},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2621491123},
eprint = {2511.01666},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05805031v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Geometry-driven jets underlie dispersal of plants and fungi by raindrops
AU - Ana-Maria Bratu
AU - Valentin Laplaud
AU - Antoine Garcia
AU - Christophe Josserand
AU - Stéphanie Drevensek
AU - Camille Duprat
AU - Arezki Boudaoud
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2621491123
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05805031v1
AB - The impact of droplets on concave surfaces is poorly understood, although it is relevant to a mode of dispersal of reproductive units that has evolved independently in several species of plants and fungi. This mode of dispersal relies on splash-cups, specialized organs that use raindrops to disperse reproductive units away from the parent organism. We investigated the impact of droplets on conical cavities that mimic splash-cups. We observed the formation of two types of jets, lateral and upward, which appear relevant to dispersal in plants and in fungi, respectively. We built a minimal kinematic model that explains jet formation, involving the motion of fluid particles along geodesics that geometrically focus on the cone surface. We used this model to predict cup angles that optimize jet formation and obtained two separate maxima for lateral and upward jets consistent with the geometries of natural splash-cups. Altogether, our work provides a geometric framework to study impact of droplets on nonflat surfaces and illustrates physical constraints underlying plant and fungal morphogenesis.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -