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
Hot peppers taste hot to us because it has a chemical called capsaicin. We as mammals have receptors that can detected it, however, those receptors are missing in birds. As such birds are able to eat hot pepper without feeling the heat. This is actually an evolutionary strategy since birds don’t chew the seeds those leaving them intact after they distribute them through their droppings.
Because there’s one species of animal that isn’t affected by capsaicin (the stuff that makes peppers hot) and that’s birds. Birds also swallow seeds whole, unlike other animals that bite and chew their food.
Birds eat the spicy fruit without any pain, fly around and poop out the seeds, so more pepper plants can grow
Kinda the opposite, actually.
Peppers’ spiciness is a defense mechanism, since mammals presumably would be less inclined to eat them if they knew it was painful.
It was kinda a fun little quirk that we instead evolved to seek out that flavor to supplement other blander foods.
In general, animals who can digest the seeds don’t like spice, while animals who spread the seeds aren’t affected by it. That’s the evolutionary advantage.
Does the evolution of flora depend on it’s usefulness to others?
You answered your own question. The only disadvantage is to the animal. Plants or animals don’t evolve to provide advantages to others only to themselves. So it makes sense that a spicy plant won’t get eaten, therefore it can stay around longer.
Turns out it was massively beneficial because a bunch of stupid ape machocists are now breeding, cultivating, and caring for millions (billions?) of pepper plants while other, even stupider apes drive demand for even more breeding and cultivation of pepper plants (it’s me, I’m other, even stupider apes)
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