3 ms·
The bites themselves don’t cause the plant to produce more capsaicin. It’s natural selection - plants in areas with lots of insects end up producing more capsai
by ricardobeat 3y ago
The bites themselves don’t cause the plant to produce more capsaicin. It’s natural selection - plants in areas with lots of insects end up producing more capsaicin as a means of protecting themselves. They are hotter, and insects will not bite them as a result.
Happy to be proven wrong if you have sources saying otherwise, but I’m quite certain this is the science behind it.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoThis is basically the same as arguing that exposure to sunlight won't darken your skin, but it will mean that natural selection gives your descendants darker skin. There is every reason to expect that a plant's defenses against predation will be more active the more predation it experiences.
- ricardobeat 3y agoMelanin is produced as a reaction to UV exposure. Capsaicin is not produced as a reaction to bug bites. This is basic Darwinism vs Lamarckism, evolutionary pressure vs the idea of inheriting acquired traits.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoYou just stated that you didn't know whether or not this was the case. Has that changed? > This is basic Darwinism vs Lamarckism, evolutionary pressure vs the idea of inheriting acquired traits. Considering we're only talking about one plant, and not an ancestral line of plants over time, you appear to be pretty badly confused.