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!

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.