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Very fun article. Convergent evolution is so cool. At the end, the author asked: why don’t plants also evolve into grasses? Would like to hear if anyone knows.
by donkeyboy 4y ago
Very fun article. Convergent evolution is so cool. At the end, the author asked: why don’t plants also evolve into grasses?
Would like to hear if anyone knows. If you look at onion or garlic growing, it basically looks like a very long piece of grass.
- mcv 4y ago> why don’t plants also evolve into grasses? Perhaps they're doing exactly that. But grasses evolved far more recently than trees.
- mannykannot 4y agoIf all plant life evolved into grasses, that would create an opportunity to do something different - to grow taller than grasses are able, for example. Monocultures are not optimal.
- blululu 4y agoTangentially related, but grasses are, in fact, a very recent evolutionary turn. We live in a very grass heavy epoch to the extent that it is hard for me to imagine a world with out grasslands. In some sense grasses seem primitive and foundational to us compared to a flowering tree like the magnolia, but no - grasses are actually really complicated and impressive organisms that filled an unexpectedly large niche.