I just re-watched Aliens and now these seem a bit menacing to me.
Thysanocarpus is a small genus of plants in the mustard family known generally as fringepods or lacepods. These are small, erect annual herbs. The flat fruit capsule is generally round or oval-shaped with a wing that goes all the way around the pod, giving it a fringed look. The fruits hang from most of the length of the stem. The plants are native to the western United States.
