if fruit is sweet to encourage animals to eat it and carry the seeds away from the parent tree, how do lemons and limes fit into this mix?
In: Biology
Neither lemons, nor limes are naturally occurring fruit trees, both of them are a hybrid that was created either intentionally or perhaps by accident by humans crossbreeding different citrus trees. Many of the fruits and vegetables we cultivate, and eat exist because of human intervention.
Neither lemons or limes are naturally occurring fruits – they are both hybrids that were developed via human intervention.
citrus may be sour, but its still a very sweet type of sour. compare it to many other types of “sour” that doesn’t come from citrus fruits. many are more an acquired taste or not desirable at all.
To add on, most natural fruits aren’t anywhere near as sweet as what we’ve turned them into
Because *life* didn’t give us lemons, *we* gave ourselves the lemons all along! Our own worst enemy… luckily we created Gin and Tequila to compliment the limes and Vodka to enjoy with lemons. Eventually *sprite* was hatched in a backroom laboratory at the crossroads of thirst and quench. The rest, as they say, is history.
Remember that pretty much everything that people grow for food are the product of 100s or 1000s of years of cultivating, maybe we don’t care or even want them to spread, we spread them where we want.
Animals taste often isn’t the same as humans. I’m not sure what animals eat citrus fruit in the wild, but the probably don’t mind the sour. Lemon and limes to have some sugar, though the sour overwhelms that for humans.
I do know that birds aren’t bothered by capsaicin and can eat the seeds of even the hottest peppers.
All fruits and vegetables that you’re aware of were artificially selected by humans. We invented all of the food we grow.
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