Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Biology

Chapter

Organisms and Populations

Question:

Why do we never see cattles or goats browsing on weed Calotropis?

Options:

The plant produces highly poisonous tannins.

The plant produces quinine which is bitter in taste.

The plant produces poisonous cardiac glycosides.

The plant bears prickles.

Correct Answer:

The plant produces poisonous cardiac glycosides.

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option (3) – The plant produces poisonous cardiac glycosides.

For plants, herbivores are the predators. Nearly 25 per cent of all insects are known to be phytophagous (feeding on plant sap and other parts of plants). The problem is particularly severe for plants because, unlike animals, they cannot run away from their predators. Plants therefore have evolved an astonishing variety of morphological and chemical defences against herbivores. Thorns (Acacia, Cactus) are the most common morphological means of defence.

Many plants produce and store chemicals that make the herbivore sick when they are eaten, inhibit feeding or digestion, disrupt its reproduction or even kill it.

Weed Calotropis growing in abandoned fields. The plant produces highly poisonous cardiac glycosides .

A wide variety of chemical substances that we extract from plants on a commercial scale (nicotine, caffeine, quinine, strychnine, opium, etc.,) are produced by them actually as defences against grazers and browsers.