TBF, life’s objective is to reproduce and keep its genetic materials continuing on. Even if humans propagate and consume said plant because they find it desirable, that is still a success for the plant. So even if it has toxic caffeine or fiery capsaicin to deter some pests and humans find it enjoyable, the plant wins.
Especially since many of the plants die after 1 year anyway so it’s not even like we shorten their lives anyway.
What does anyone have against “u”, fucking fuck?
Americans have been trying to eliminate the letter “u” for centuries.
No u
NO V
Poppies kill things?
Heroin, opium and morphine are derived from poppies. Too much of any narcotic and you die
Yeah but we need to process the shit out of it. Is anything really going to die from eating some raw poppy seeds?
People die almost every year overdosing on tea made from poppy seeds.
The potency of the seeds vary so much that you can buy two jars and drinking a tea made from one will give you a decent buzz and the other will kill you if you drink half.
If an animal were to eat a seed pod, it could definitely die.
It doesn’t really need to be processed much. Heated plant parts for tea and the sap is ready to smoke after drying. Both of these processes do count as processing but I would not say it counts as "process[ing] the shit out of it. "
To overdose to death on it you need to also purify and concentrate it. Animals aren’t even heating and smoking it.
You don’t need to purify to drink it just extract it. It’s hard to smoke enough opium to OD (which I guess counts as concentration through evaporation but isn’t purified to seperate alkoloids) to death without other drugs but it is pretty easy to over do it with just tea. Like a previous poster said tea extractions will have wildly varying potencies so they can kill even those with tolerance.
Well, we are pretty big for insects
statistically no, but its possible to get a random group of poppyseeds that are extra potent. its why for example, South Korea bans it (as they dont even want the chance for them to get collected)
So how do we do poppy seed bagels?
The poppy seeds don’t contain the opiate, the surrounding latex contains it (visual: pomegranate seeds, and the inedible flesh you free it from).
Some of that opiate might get on the seeds, but its mixed into such quantities with other poppy seeds that the potency level is diluted to virtually nothing.
And yet, can still fuck the unlucky in a drug test.
Wow. I guess I need to eat more bagels
Nicotine, THC, and cocaine are also insecticides. And psilocybin might be an insect repellent.
Thanks poison!
Capsaicin is a fungicide, which is extremely useful in the environments where spicy peppers grow.
Drugs - natures mosquito repellant
Mosquitoes are such squares!
Basically humans will have sex with you, eat you, or make you a pet.
Sometimes more than one.
Don’t forget we wear them also…
All valid Points. But also, humans: i will care for this plant and create huge fields where you can live prosper and in peace. We kill everything who comes near you and try to harm you. And we will ensure you will live forever. You dont need birds who shit your seeds out.
Those plants domesticared us!
Botany of desire
I evolutionary terms being edible to humans is quite useful.
It worked for chickens…
Chickens are the most numerous bird on the planet, wheat covers more land area than any other plant.
Because humans feel encouraged to further protect that plant against pests.
As well as spreading and planting seeds, clearing competing plants, and providing water and nutrients.
What’s the bottom imagine from?
Veep
Still my favorite “WTF” line delivery in any film or show.
Thank you! Watching episode 1 now!
Strap yourself in.
Isn’t the flavour of cocoa also originally a pesticidal chemical lol
HFY vibes
The best bit about the mint and chocolate thing is that chocolate is also poison, so we spice up our poison with more poison.
Funnily enough we try to cultivate everything we like, so in a roundabout way they were successful.
I think the book Sapiens makes the point that wheat has trained us into cultivating it for selfish needs.
(Except that it’s wheat, and that we annihilated 99% of its brethren to pick out the one that we liked so we could effectively clone it. But yes, we are the slaves…)
Sapiens and Homo Deus are both such good books. Lots of little anecdotes like that we’re just so fascinating.
I think that’s basically what The Botany of Desire is about, right?
They just want to propagate. The best chance a plant has to do that is by being tasty or useful to humans so we cultivate them.
Tbf, this has proven to be extremely effective: Just think of how many tobacco or chili plants are grown today! Domestication really is a two-way-street
Obligatory symbiosis is a sexy, sexy vehicle for propagation.