this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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I've heard the argument that the evolution of our ability to enjoy such things benefits both that pungent plant as well as us. By eating such things, we propagate them better. But the kind of insects and animals that would otherwise eat them wouldn't assist propagation. So the plants evolved to both repel the disadvantageous eaters and attract the advantageous eater by the same method.
I kinda think that falls apart with horseradish though. Afaik, humans don't spread anything directly with that. We can cultivate it, which helps the plant, but that's not the same action as digging up garlic, eating some, and spreading the cloves, or the seeds from peppers. That puts a hole in this specific set of plants with that idea.
Growing my first horseradish plant this year. Do we not spread it around by breaking off chunks of root and sharing them around? Same as garlic, we're taking pieces of root to grow more?
Peppers are that way because birds don't taste the hotness and they spread seeds further than other animals. I guess humans spread seeds even further as you can get them shipped from another continent really easily. Although birds also fly those distances, they poop more frequently.
Humans also are really bad at returning digested seeds to the environment. Unlike all other life we process our shit
I meant the purposeful spread by agriculture, not the natural way.
You haven't seen me with a belly full of spicy food.
How do we propagate horseradish?
Kinda like potatoes, garlic, ginger, lots of plants. Dig it up, break of a chunk, eat the rest, replant chunk.
Or if the British are taking all of your food and there's a fungal disease, dig it up, eat most, save some for next year's crop, then eat some of that because starving, while British landlords insist their rights be upheld (and they be allowed to continue to take all other crop yields as rent) and British farmers insist no one be allowed to undercut their food prices that the peasants of Ireland can't afford.
When a horse and a radish love each other very much they do a special hug.