BIOL 1902 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Abies Balsamea, Moulting, Juvenile Hormone
23 May 2015
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Document Summary
They are non-structural, only there as a defensive compound, digestibility reducers. Mouth feels dry when you eat them and lips pucker up. Plant secondary metabolite (made by the plant but not necessary for the plant to survive: calcium is also used as a deterrent. Arum plants (i. e. skunk cabbage, jack in the pulpit) have calcium oxalate crystals in their leaves. If an animal tries to eat these leaves, their tongue and lips start burning, and start choking: skunk cabbage generate their own heat and melt snow around them, milkweed has cardiac glycosides (heart poisons) called terpenoids. Terpenoids taste bitter (more of a repellant than poison) and do not contain nitrogen. Terpenoids are a major group of plant chemical toxins (chemical, not physical: monarchs have a solution to the toxins, new pine cones have resin. Sticky and has toxins: poison ivy are defended by terpenoids is a resin (oleoresins) called urushiol, alkaloids toxins that contain nitrogen.
