If plants develop to protect themselves in their growth why are all plants and flowers not poisonous?
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Well poison must be produced, so it can take energy and complexity to make the poison. If you’re only being eaten a little bit, it might not be worth it. Also, I think some plants can poison themselves to some extent, or their offspring.
Also, some plants want to be eaten, for instance fruit.
Some also have other defences you might not notice. Trichomes can defend against insects, some plants like radish leaves have an odd texture that many mammals might not enjoy.
Also poison has to be evolved, which can be complicated. Poison could be very helpful, but perhaps other adaptations are even more helpful.
Also, herbivorea adapt over time to poison. Lots of herbivores have evolved to tolerate poisons, so there is a back-and-forth going in, like countermeasures and countercountermeasures, so the poison might not work too well.
There are certaintly lots of poisonous and allelopathic (poisonous to other plants) plants out there though, probably more than you would realize.
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