why some leaves are edible & others aren’t?
In: 1
Plants defend themselves against being eaten. Sometimes those protections draw in stupid animals that enjoy them (chili peppers, humans) other times the protections can be rendered inert (cooking nettles).
Every organism, during its evolution, has to develop contermeasures to avoid being eaten by other animals or parasites. Animals do use a lot of different defensive mechanism (for example, poison) or straight up rely on claws or fangs.
Plants, well, they cannot move so their defenses have to be (mostly) chemical. In most cases this usually means making so the leaves are disgusting to the taste of the animals, which will then just go and find something else to eat.
Also keep in mind that, as animals are different, they can react differently to the chemicals inside the leaves. Chilli peppers, for example, ended up being enjoyable to us humans 🙂
Latest Answers