We are always warned about poisonous wild berries in forests and gardens but practically it seems confusing.
Assuming that berries carry seeds for procreation and propogation wouldn’t making delectable and attractive berries/fruits help to spread the seeds via animals and birds eating it. Also since flowering and producing fruits/berries is an energy intensive process, why make them poisonous instead of not making them.
In: Biology
There’s adaptive pressure for fruit bearing plants to have a special relationship with some species, because that relationship is more reliable for spreading seeds (which is the whole point of making fruit). Usually, that preferred host is birds, because flying is really good for seed spreading. So the berries make poison to discourage other animals from eating. However some fruit like blackberries have a favored relationship with mammals (especially bears).
Your presuming that these berries are poisonous for everything. Being poisonous to humans does not mean they are poisonous for other animals to eat/spread the seeds
Poisonous to some. Yummy to others.
Maybe they’ll be delicious to birds so the seeds will be pooped far and wide. Maybe they’ll be poisonous to goats to prevent goats from chowing down on the whole plant and tearing it up by the roots.
Machineel is a poisonous apple-like fruit that grows on the beach in the Caribbean.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel)
It’s so poisonous that it is dangerous to stand underneath it in a rainstorm.
However there is an iguana that eats the fruit and lives in the branches sometimes. Apparently the two species co-evolved.
When plants or animals are poisonous it’s a defense mechanism to protect their species from predators.
Think of peppers. They’re only spicy to mammals, not to birds. That’s because they’re spread by birds, and a mammal eating them is a disadvantage. So they need to be attractive to birds (that’s why they’re mostly red and other bright colors) and repulsive to mammals (hence the capsaicin). Poisonous berries work the same way.
Plants dont want to be eaten, especially their seeds.
They produce antinutrients, toxins, and poison to protect themselves from being eaten. Which is why the foods that we were taught are the healthiest(vegetables, fruits) might not be the best option.
Think of an animal, when its attacked it can use its ability to run away from being killed, while a plant doesnt have that option, so it developed a defense mechanism.
In a way, this is obvious, for example, most babies hate vegetables. A baby is completely reliant on its natural instinct, so it knows that the food poses a threat. Its only later when the individual is forcefully pushed into eating vegetables because people believe “its good for you”.
I never liked any vegetable and I never plan on eating them.
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