On Sun, 18 May 2003 10:11:53 +0900, "Gyve Turquoise"
wrote:

My possibly mistaken guess is that fruits such as strawberries and
blackberries spread the seeds of the plant via bird droppings. Can anyone
answer my crazy question about the fruit of the avocado? What is it for? How
is the seed propagated in the wild? What is the fruit for?

(Excuse me for asking something slightly off topic.)


I suppose the first question is "what did an avocado look like before
it was bred for human consumption". Assuming that it must have had
some (probably much smaller) proportion of its volume devoted to the
"meat" surrounding the seed, it was still there for the same reason.
It provides a very calorie-packed food source for an animal. The
animal would be expected to pick the fruit and carry it to a safer
place to consume it. The seed would be dropped with a chance to
sprout some distance from the parent plant (less competition). The
bargain is really not that much different from those struck by
nectar-filled flowers and their pollenators.