I looked it up, and it also increases the tannin levels in the leaves. So if something is eating the tree, it and other nearby trees change their leaves to become more toxic to what usually eats them.
I’m guessing this leaves them generally non-toxic which helps keep critters they don’t mind around.
The trees just slowly sway, their woody groans slowly creaking out “wwwwweeeeeellllllll sssssshhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt” as the fire engulfs the savannah.
Makes sense. If animals are about to start eating, they’ll want the fruit to be ready. Obviously the seeds need to be ready, but also the flavour of the fruits themselves so animals don’t ignore them and they all end up rotting directly below their parent.
Or, from another angle, one tree that doesn’t want animals eating it emits chemical that causes fruit of other trees to be more attractive so animals are less likely to waste time eating the comparatively less nutritious leaves or bark.
And adding a layer to that, even if the animals that like to eat its bark/leaves aren’t interested in the fruit, if other animals are attracted to the fruit, it can attract more predators that might be happy to eat animals looking for bark/leaves as well as those looking for fruit. And both predators and prey might also be directly attracted to the original chemical the tree released.
Or it might just be a coincidence. Actually, even if it is functional in those ways or others, it’s still a coincidence because that’s how evolution works, it just stuck around either because it works or because it’s tied to some other trait that does with and doesn’t cost enough to be a net negative.
Note: this is all speculation, not based on any specific knowledge about this tree or ecosystem.
But ethylene is the ripening signal molecule, right? Why would trees be warning other trees to ripen their fruit?
I looked it up, and it also increases the tannin levels in the leaves. So if something is eating the tree, it and other nearby trees change their leaves to become more toxic to what usually eats them.
I’m guessing this leaves them generally non-toxic which helps keep critters they don’t mind around.
Aahh that makes more sense… I was more wondering less on how trees can warn eachother, but how much is there that they can do something about.
I was just imagining… “HEY THERE’S A FOREST FIRE COMING”… then a response… welp that sucks.
The trees just slowly sway, their woody groans slowly creaking out “wwwwweeeeeellllllll sssssshhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt” as the fire engulfs the savannah.
Makes sense. If animals are about to start eating, they’ll want the fruit to be ready. Obviously the seeds need to be ready, but also the flavour of the fruits themselves so animals don’t ignore them and they all end up rotting directly below their parent.
Or, from another angle, one tree that doesn’t want animals eating it emits chemical that causes fruit of other trees to be more attractive so animals are less likely to waste time eating the comparatively less nutritious leaves or bark.
And adding a layer to that, even if the animals that like to eat its bark/leaves aren’t interested in the fruit, if other animals are attracted to the fruit, it can attract more predators that might be happy to eat animals looking for bark/leaves as well as those looking for fruit. And both predators and prey might also be directly attracted to the original chemical the tree released.
Or it might just be a coincidence. Actually, even if it is functional in those ways or others, it’s still a coincidence because that’s how evolution works, it just stuck around either because it works or because it’s tied to some other trait that does with and doesn’t cost enough to be a net negative.
Note: this is all speculation, not based on any specific knowledge about this tree or ecosystem.