If evolving to bear good tasting fruit meant being able to spread seeds through animals and birds, why did some plants develop bad tasting fruit like chili and lemon?

Question

If evolving to bear good tasting fruit meant being able to spread seeds through animals and birds, why did some plants develop bad tasting fruit like chili and lemon?

In: 3

Answer 1

Not all fruit is designed to be eaten and the seeds pooped out. Some fruit actually evolved to make sure this didn’t happen with bitter or offensive tasting fruit. Some fruit like chili’s are only spicy to mammals, birds don’t have the receptor that capsaicin effects for example. By not being eaten the seeds won’t be digested if they’re not hardy enough to pass through the digestive tract.