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Old 12-21-2005, 12:43 PM   #11 (permalink)
1010011010
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Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Firstly... It's civet. Look up Kopi Luwak. Civets seem to have a thing
for slightly-past-its-expiration-date fruit.

The entire purpose of a fruit is to entice animals to eat it and then spread the seeds far and wide with a little free fertilizer. Mostly, fruit are enticing by virtue of high sugar content. But that'sa very general sort of attraction and plants do not benefit equally from all animals that consume their fruit. Some animals may be able to digest the seeds as well as the fruit, some animals may provide more or better fertilizer than others. If a plant discovers a way to be particularly attractive to animals that benefit it the most, it will have an advantage.

The relationship between plants and their pollinators is particularly interesting. There are plants that grow flowers that look like female wasps... and you can imagine how that works out. There are plants that smell like rotting meat to attract flies that act as pollinators. I'm sure a cat rolling around in a series of patches of catnip spreads some pollen around, too.
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