Costs and Benefits
Defensive structures and chemicals are costly as they require resources that could otherwise be used by plants to maximize growth and reproduction. Many models have been proposed to explore how and why some plants make this investment in defenses against herbivores.
Read more about this topic: Plant Defense Against Herbivory
Famous quotes containing the words costs and/or benefits:
“It costs more to maintain ten vices than one virtue.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“While greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey,
Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits ...”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)