Post by vierra on May 26, 2004 2:41:01 GMT -5
The officials are cutting down all the wild opium poppies in Afghanistan. Banned.
For a plant that is so easy to grow and maintain, the poppy plant goes through an amazingly elaborate process to generate over 20 (over 50?) alkaloids and other complex substances in the poppy pod (bulb), said alkaloids and substances being the source of hundreds of drugs (good and bad) worth billions and billions of dollars. Why does the poppy bother to generate these alkaloids and substances?
Symbiosis? Darwinian evolution? The seeds need them?
It's a beautiful flower, too.
For a plant that is so easy to grow and maintain, the poppy plant goes through an amazingly elaborate process to generate over 20 (over 50?) alkaloids and other complex substances in the poppy pod (bulb), said alkaloids and substances being the source of hundreds of drugs (good and bad) worth billions and billions of dollars. Why does the poppy bother to generate these alkaloids and substances?
Symbiosis? Darwinian evolution? The seeds need them?
It's a beautiful flower, too.
