ok, in grade school, we learned of ways plants propagated their species by spreading their seeds. fruits and nuts spread their seeds by tasting good, animals eat them, and the seeds fall out in a pile of dung that helps fertilize it. milkweed seeds float through the air, etc…
peppers. i think we’re the only animal that eats them due to their ‘hotness’. so how do they spread their seeds? or do peppers hope for a grove of pepper plants?
IIRC, birds are immune to the hotness of peppers and cheerfully eat them. As the owner of a car, I can testify to the ability of birds to spread their, uh, fecal products everywhere.
Yep. I’m pretty sure Random’s right (although you didn’t need ME to tell you that, right?). I also recall that’s the way that a lot of plant species were (and are) spread around, not just peppers.
Well, either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the power of the presence of a pool table in your community. Ya’ got trouble my friends! -
Prof. Harold Hill
Gary Conservatory
Gold Medal Class
'05
Random and Garfield are both right. Cecil himself has said that birds are better distributors of seeds than are mammals, and that parrots like peppers. What I wonder about is mangoes. I can’t imagine any animal swallowing that giant seed. What’s their secret?
Greg–Re: mangoes. Animals don’t swallow the seed. The pick the fruit, eat the mango, and drop the seed. Voila!