What fruit of a South American tree explodes when ripe and spreads its seeds 50 feet or more?

Son of The Household Cavalry

Not quite South America but pretty close. Fruit of Hura crepitans. Carolina, north-eastern Puerto Rico. This is a highly poisonous tree common in humid forests throughout the Caribbean.The fruits dry out as they mature, and the seeds are dispersed when they eventually explode (hence the Latin epithet, 'crepitans'.) Oct 11 01, 4:14 PM

McGruff

Another Caribbean tree, Hura crepitans, with an unmistakable trunk and limbs covered by sharp black thorns, grows in forested areas and along roadsides. It is sometimes called "monkey pistol" because the unusual pumpkin-shaped seed capsule forcibly ejects its seeds. The capsule literally explodes like a small grenade, only in this case the shrapnel consists of dozens of flat, circular seeds and many small crescent-shaped sections. Each section has the general shape of a porpoise or dolphin as it bounds through the water. The woody sections are made into earrings and clever pins. This tree is also called "sandbox tree" because the seed capsule was used to hold sand as a blotter -- before the advent of blotters and ball point pens. http://www.herbalgram.org/iherb/herbalgram/articleview.asp?a=875 Feb 16 05, 5:14 AM