Consider the relationship between ripe sweet fruits and a hungry bear. If only no one passed by!
So why are the fruits so interested in animals, and vice versa. But let's first deal with the interests of the fruits.
Why do fruits need to be eaten
Surprisingly, the fruits are the ovaries of plants, essentially the same as the ovaries in a woman's body. The ovaries are the organs where the eggs are formed. While a woman has two ovaries, plants have more. A plant can literally be hung with them. Remember the apple tree in the fall, when golden fruits hang on each branch.
So, the whole thing is as follows. Ovaries of plants are arranged in flowers, for example, in the flowers of an apple tree. These flowers contain ovules - the eggs of plants. After pollen fertilizes ovules, seeds form from the latter. The ovary surrounding the seeds grows in the fetus. Finally you have an apple with brown seeds inside. Each seed contains information sufficient to grow a new tree.
Interesting fact: life on Earth has one main task - self-reproduction.
All life on Earth, both animals and plants, has one main task - self-reproduction. Each individual must be sure that both its species and its personal genes will be transmitted and spread far and wide throughout the world.But if you are a bush of black currant, lonely growing in the middle of a large wasteland, then how can you send at least one seed to a nearby meadow, and not drop all the seeds on the road, where they will simply die?
The answer is very simple: you need to use many animals that run, creep and fly past you, that can carry seeds to a neighboring meadow and even further. And you pack the seeds in an elegant, bright, in a word irresistible, package, by which no one can pass indifferently. Everyone takes at least a little.
Everything has its time or seed ripening
The most important thing in life is to do everything on time. It is useless to spread immature seeds around the world. Therefore, plants use the senses of animals - vision, smell and taste, to make them pick fruits only when they ripen, that is, when the seeds are able to germinate.
Take strawberries as an example. While strawberry seeds grow, the fruits are green and unappetizing, a protective color masks them in the leaves and grass. Animals passing by do not notice such strawberries. And if any bear tastes an unripe fruit, it is unlikely that the beast will find the hard and bitter fruit tasty. If the bear is not very hungry, then the remaining fruits will remain in place. When the seeds are ready for planting in the soil, everything changes. The berries become bright red and stand out clearly against the background of green grass - an excellent bait for animals scurrying through the forest. At the same time, strawberries not only changed color. The berries are softer and, most importantly, much sweeter.They are beckoning the bears and you and me: “Eat me, try it! This is so delicious! ”
Why does fruit color change?
Why is this transformation happening? Enzymes affect the fiber contained in the berry, softening it and giving it a jelly-like consistency. Other enzymes convert starch and glucose into fructose and sucrose (regular table sugar). Other fruits may receive sugar with nutritious juices that enter it from the stem and roots of the parent plant. Naturally, animals enjoy eating ripe sweet fruits. Birds, eating berries and fruits, then burp seeds, animals throw them into the environment with feces. Many seeds are spread in this way in white light, fall on a good fertile soil and give rise to a new plant.
The fact that the fruit becomes sweet as it ripens is an example of the evolution of the community of plants and animals. Plants have developed the ability to reproduce, based on the existence of toothy hungry animals.
