Why did hot peppers evolve?
 

I was just reading some of the posts in the recent "cats?" thread. The
discussion turned to hot pepper and it reminded me of something I have
been wondering about.

Plants produce fruit for only one reason, right? To attract an animal to
eat it and carry the seeds away to new locations. So why did hot peppers
evolve to be so hot? It's almost like there must be an advantage to the
plant to repel animals and keep the seeds from spreading. Well, that
can't be. Is there an animal that is attracted to the hotness? I think I
remember that birds aren't affected by hot peppers. Is that the key to
my little mystery?

Steve

Maybe it's like this - the pepper growing in a particular
location needs to spread its seed, but not too far for
risk that soil conditions will change with distance.
So, an animal comes by and bites the pepper and shakes
its head once it senses the taste - the pepper/seeds get flung
around. That's just my out-of-da-box idea... Or, maybe
it's as you say - birds don't sense it and poop the seeds here
and there. If birds are bothered, it's possible the pepper
just reproduces on a local basis without the need to spread
much. ??? botanists out there ???

Steve wrote:
I was just reading some of the posts in the recent "cats?" thread. The
discussion turned to hot pepper and it reminded me of something I have
been wondering about.

Plants produce fruit for only one reason, right? To attract an animal to
eat it and carry the seeds away to new locations. So why did hot peppers
evolve to be so hot? It's almost like there must be an advantage to the
plant to repel animals and keep the seeds from spreading. Well, that
can't be. Is there an animal that is attracted to the hotness? I think I
remember that birds aren't affected by hot peppers. Is that the key to
my little mystery?

Steve

in article , Steve at
wrote on 6/17/05 6:57 AM:

I was just reading some of the posts in the recent "cats?" thread. The
discussion turned to hot pepper and it reminded me of something I have
been wondering about.

Plants produce fruit for only one reason, right? To attract an animal to
eat it and carry the seeds away to new locations. So why did hot peppers
evolve to be so hot? It's almost like there must be an advantage to the
plant to repel animals and keep the seeds from spreading. Well, that
can't be. Is there an animal that is attracted to the hotness? I think I
remember that birds aren't affected by hot peppers. Is that the key to
my little mystery?

Steve

Evolve? It must be intelligent design! After all, an anthropomorphic God
enjoys a good laugh when someone is tricked into eating one of those bitty
black things as well as the next guy.

Bill

Ahh, Itelligent designer theory. I see someone is read up
"Repeating Rifle" wrote in message
...
in article , Steve at
wrote on 6/17/05 6:57 AM:

I was just reading some of the posts in the recent "cats?" thread. The
discussion turned to hot pepper and it reminded me of something I have
been wondering about.

Plants produce fruit for only one reason, right? To attract an animal to
eat it and carry the seeds away to new locations. So why did hot peppers
evolve to be so hot? It's almost like there must be an advantage to the
plant to repel animals and keep the seeds from spreading. Well, that
can't be. Is there an animal that is attracted to the hotness? I think I
remember that birds aren't affected by hot peppers. Is that the key to
my little mystery?

Steve

Evolve? It must be intelligent design! After all, an anthropomorphic God
enjoys a good laugh when someone is tricked into eating one of those bitty
black things as well as the next guy.

Bill

Repeating Rifle wrote:

After all, an anthropomorphic God
enjoys a good laugh when someone is tricked into eating one of those bitty
black things as well as the next guy.

The duck-billed platypus is a dead giveaway, even more so than the
babelfish.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Steve wrote:
I was just reading some of the posts in the recent "cats?" thread. The
discussion turned to hot pepper and it reminded me of something I have
been wondering about.

Plants produce fruit for only one reason, right? To attract an animal to
eat it and carry the seeds away to new locations. So why did hot peppers
evolve to be so hot? It's almost like there must be an advantage to the
plant to repel animals and keep the seeds from spreading. Well, that
can't be. Is there an animal that is attracted to the hotness? I think I
remember that birds aren't affected by hot peppers. Is that the key to
my little mystery?

Steve

I'm an animal and I'm attracted to chiles. Does that count?

David

http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/FAQ.htm

And lots more too!


John!

Steve wrote:
I was just reading some of the posts in the recent "cats?" thread. The
discussion turned to hot pepper and it reminded me of something I have
been wondering about.

Plants produce fruit for only one reason, right? To attract an animal to
eat it and carry the seeds away to new locations. So why did hot peppers
evolve to be so hot? It's almost like there must be an advantage to the
plant to repel animals and keep the seeds from spreading. Well, that
can't be. Is there an animal that is attracted to the hotness? I think I
remember that birds aren't affected by hot peppers. Is that the key to
my little mystery?

Steve

Alls it takes is a few humans eating hot peppers and putting the seed reamins out in the compost pile or in the trash and there you have a nice spread of seeds. THen the humans also travel with the hot peppers and when they go bad they toss them out and the seeds have a new place to be.
Also when the peppers go bad on the vine and drop to the ground they can sprout and move across the land by the next crop dropping peppers. Another theory is after the peppers drop and there is a nice rain to wash seeds to another place, that can work too!

Morten Bjergstrøm wrote:

............................
"Researchers think that the reason why chiles are pungent is an
evolutionary depelopment to keep mammals from eating the chiles because
mammals digestion system destroys the seeds. Capsaicin doesn't has the
same influence on birds whose digestion system doesn't destroy the
seeds. The seeds therefore passes unhindered and the birds are
spreading the seeds widely securing the survival of the chile plants."
http://miljokemi.dk/chili/chilikemi.php?language=uk


Thanks to all who gave a reply. I guess this is the most reasonable
answer to my mind.
There are many fruits that attract mammals and their seeds survive the
trip through the digestive system. Maybe pepper seeds can't survive if
eaten by a mammal and so developed this alternate plan. My first thought
was that there are so many birds that are seed eaters that they must
be able to digest seeds very well. If not, we wouldn't be attracting
many birds to our winter bird feeders.
On the other hand, when birds eat fruits such as Strawberries, I do
believe the seeds survive. I've never seen a bird eat a pepper but I
assume in their native habitat, there are birds that eat them.

Steve

Hence the name Bird Peppers for some of the wild types.

Now, more importantly, why did humans start eating them???

John!

Steve wrote:
On the other hand, when birds eat fruits such as Strawberries, I do
believe the seeds survive. I've never seen a bird eat a pepper but I
assume in their native habitat, there are birds that eat them.

Steve

Steve wrote:
So why did hot peppers evolve to be so hot?

And how did they manage to be both hot and harmless? Don't try eating
poison ivy.

On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 17:07:01 -0400, Steve wrote:

{...}

Thanks to all who gave a reply. I guess this is the most reasonable
answer to my mind.
There are many fruits that attract mammals and their seeds survive the
trip through the digestive system. Maybe pepper seeds can't survive if
eaten by a mammal and so developed this alternate plan. My first thought
was that there are so many birds that are seed eaters that they must
be able to digest seeds very well. If not, we wouldn't be attracting
many birds to our winter bird feeders.
On the other hand, when birds eat fruits such as Strawberries, I do
believe the seeds survive. I've never seen a bird eat a pepper but I
assume in their native habitat, there are birds that eat them.

Steve

I have a constant competition with the local mockingbinds (Central
Texas) over which one of us will get the fruits of the wild chile
pequins growing around my property. They (the mockingbirds) will
patiently pluck and devour dozens of ripe fruit from a plant, then fly
to the next to select their next course. FWIW they also have a great
fondness for cherry tomatoes.

B.Server wrote:

On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 17:07:01 -0400, Steve wrote:

{...}

Thanks to all who gave a reply. I guess this is the most reasonable
answer to my mind.
There are many fruits that attract mammals and their seeds survive the
trip through the digestive system. Maybe pepper seeds can't survive if
eaten by a mammal and so developed this alternate plan. My first thought
was that there are so many birds that are seed eaters that they must
be able to digest seeds very well. If not, we wouldn't be attracting
many birds to our winter bird feeders.
On the other hand, when birds eat fruits such as Strawberries, I do
believe the seeds survive. I've never seen a bird eat a pepper but I
assume in their native habitat, there are birds that eat them.

Steve


I have a constant competition with the local mockingbinds (Central
Texas) over which one of us will get the fruits of the wild chile
pequins growing around my property. They (the mockingbirds) will
patiently pluck and devour dozens of ripe fruit from a plant, then fly
to the next to select their next course. FWIW they also have a great
fondness for cherry tomatoes.

Thanks. I live far too far north to have any thing in the way of peppers
growing wild. I'm also too far north for Mockingbirds to be common, if
they ever come here at all. I remember them well from when I was growing
up in Ohio.

Steve (in the Adirondacks of northern NY)