  Long distance wind dispersal requires small spores with low terminal
velocities, which can be held aloft by turbulent air currents until they are
deposited in suitable habitats for colonization. The inherent difficulty in
dispersing spores by wind is that spores easily carried by wind are also
rapidly decelerated when moving through still air. Thus the height of spore
release is critical in determining their range of dispersal. Vascular plants
with wind dispersed spores use the height of the plant to lift spores into
sufficient wind currents for dispersal, however non-vascular plants such as
Sphagnum cannot grow sufficiently tall. These fluid dynamics videos show how
exploding capsules of {\em Sphagnum} moss generate vortex rings to carry spores
to heights above 10 cm with an initial velocity of 16 m s$^{-1}$. In contrast
spores launched ballistically at these speeds through still air would travel
only 2-7 mm.
