Why are plants poisonous or otherwise harmful?
Plants are poisonous, or have other nasty features, primarily because they can’t move around to avoid predators (herbivores). Plants have developed an array of weapons (like thorns, hairs) and a lethal chemical arsenal (secondary metabolites) to ward off herbivores while remaining rooted firmly. Thus, plants are “intentionally trying to hurt us”. In addition, plants also unintentionally cause great human suffering (i.e., hayfever) when they shed their pollen, which is a also direct consequence of their non-motile lifestyle. II. Why don’t poisonous plants kill themselves? Did you ever wonder why toxic secondary metabolites don’t kill the plant that makes them? Primarily because after the chemical is produced, it is “locked away”. In other words, the poisonous chemicals are stored in the vacuole in the cells. The vacuole is a large water-filled sac teeming with a variety of materials including poisonous chemicals and other waste products. As long as the chemicals are tucked away in the v
