How would you classify each of these interactions for the plant (positive or negative)? What do these interactions tell you about plant and animal interactions involving part of the plant being eaten?
) Interactions between plants and other organisms can be complex and key to organisms continued survival. Joshua Tree National Park is home to the iconic Joshua tree plant, which is actually a very large species of yucca (Yucca brevifolia) with a tree-like appearance. This is a long-lived species (hundreds of years). There are many challenges to the continued survival of these plants. Mature plants can store water allowing them to survive droughts, young plants have a smaller water storage capacity and thus will die off in dry times. The only known pollinator of these plants is the yucca moth, which is becoming absent through most of the range of the yucca plant as the moth does not tolerate the increasingly warm climate in the region. The warmer climate also decreases flowering (the plants need cold to induce flowering). Adding to this challenge is the lack of natural seed dispersal of yucca. It is though that historically the seeds of this yucca were dispersed by the now extinct ground sloth. As these plants are iconic and protected many people are working hard to conserve them.
Both the caterpillar stage of the yucca moth and the ground sloth ate seeds of the yucca plant. However, when caterpillars eat, they completely digest the seed itself. When sloths ate the seeds, the seeds passed intact through the
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