Thornless Plants Defended by Teeth and Claws
African savannah plants forego thorns where the presence of predators discourages browsing. Plants on the African savannah have outsourced their defence to large carnivores. Dr Adam Ford from the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia and his colleagues, have been studying the relationship between Acacia trees, the impala who browse on them, and the wild dogs and leopards who prey on the impala. They noticed that two species of acacia which differed in that one possessed particularly nasty thorns also differed in where they grew. The thorny trees tended to thrive in open areas, and the less defended ones in denser cover. They conclude that this is because predators, who hide effectively in the areas with more cover, effectively discourage the herbivores, whereas in the open areas the plants must defend themselves.
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