Why do hot pepper plants exist? Wouldn’t it have been an evolutionary disadvantage to have fruits that were painful for animals to eat?

Question

Why do hot pepper plants exist? Wouldn’t it have been an evolutionary disadvantage to have fruits that were painful for animals to eat?

In: Biology

Answer 1

The chemical tastes spicy to mammals and has no effect on birds. There’s an advantage to the seeds eaten by things that spread the seeds as far as possible. Even to distant islands and new habitats, which mammals are much less likely to do.