Ballistic seed dispersal (ballochory) involves the autonomous explosive release of seeds from adult plants. The unconventional physical mechanism of this strategy has understandably drawn scientific attention. There has been a bias toward researching physiological and physical aspects of ballistic plants, with the evolutionary ecology being comparatively neglected. Although ballochory is represented in 23 plant families, it has never become common. This fact should invite curiosity regarding the selective pressures that encourage its evolution. As a stimulus to this, we collate existing evidence into an initial hypothesis regarding ecological situations in which ballochory would be selected in the context of costs that can explain its rarity. We suggest that ballochory might be selected for in plants experiencing high predation from specialised predators on and/or directly underneath the parental canopy. Moving forward, we suggest experimental manipulations to test this hypothesis and promote a research agenda in the field of ballistic seed dispersal that illuminates its intriguing evolution.