BIOL 140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Toxicodendron Radicans, Allelopathy, Tetrahydrocannabinol
Document Summary
Every defense that a plant has got something gets around it. Behavioral defense is slapping a mosquito on your body. An aside: snakes are carnivores but do not chew their food. Porcupines have physical defense with spines they aren"t poisonous but very sharp. Cactus has physical defense with spines as well. Trichomes--many little needles on a leaf---like tiny, tiny hairs. Lignin is added to cellulose and makes it even more of a better defense. Secondary compounds are: alkaloids, cyanogenic (generates cyanide, lectins, breaking an almond in half and then smelling it it will smell sweet because of the cyanide there isn"t much in it. Im confused about this section on hemlock: hemlock is a poison, coffee, coffee seeds, one species of beetles eat this, tea, teine and caffeine are similar, but caffeine is produced in the seeds, tea drinkers and milk.
