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DaylightsStories t1_j4veoey wrote

To poison things. Castor seeds are relatively large and would be a good source of food so there is strong pressure in favor of the plants who have seeds that are fatal to chew up and swallow. I cannot think of anything that ricin does that the plant would benefit from except for saving the lives of other seeds by killing whatever ate the first few.

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GalFisk OP t1_j4za39o wrote

Thanks. I'm curious as to how it did evolve, and what it was before it became such a deadly toxin. But all research i can find has gone into what it does to humans and animals.

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DaylightsStories t1_j4zxl2r wrote

I suspect it was probably a less deadly toxin beforehand(given that the family castor is in, Euphorbiaceae, are notoriously likely to be poisonous) although the subject of plant evolution in general is poorly studied and I would not be surprised if this has never been looked into.

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almostbig t1_j500s6z wrote

it has, but not really surprisingly the answer is:
1 - plant make protein for defense

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2 - plant happy

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3 - Florida or whatever happens randomly

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4 - Ricin

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