Re: Plants The sixth sense

From: Neil Carroll zzamia at hargray.com> on 2002.02.02 at 16:24:38(8135) THis time factor seems to be tripping us up in this thread. Evolution or Natural Selection takes place over a very long time (in earth terms). Lets take an average orchid time from seed to flower....say aprox 5years for a fast one and about 9 or 10 years for the very slowest................ In 100 years you would have a possible ten generations. In 1000 years 100 generations In1,000,000 years 100,000 generations. THat's a lot of generations but, 1 million years is still not a very long time. Man is estimated to have been on earth many millions of years. Still this is not a very long time. Plants have a lot of patience since they have nothing to think about. Plants have no nervous system, their environments cause them to live or die. If they are equipted to live they live and procreate, if they are not equiped to live they die and they do not procreate. Whether we believe in natural selection or not.....plants and animals have no choice but to die if they are not able to survive. The plants and animals that are able to survive, reproduce and pass on their traits to their offspring. Plants that do not survive do not pass on their traits because they cannot produce offspring when they are dead. Again, time alows for many 'experiments', mutations, combinations and permutations. Mutations, stabilized hybrid swarms, and isolation (islands, teypuis, mountain tops etc.) might help skip a few evolutionary steps, but the off spring still must survive the rigors of their environment......without the aid of a nervous system. For all but a very small number of higher primates, the plants and animals of the world are at the mercy of their envirnoments. And that environment will chose which plant and animal individuals will survive. there is nothing but compitition on this planet. Neil

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