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Symbiosis

SciShow Tangents

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The Mutualism Between Fig Trees and Wasps

The mutualism between fig trees and some wasps is a classic, i'm going to try to gross you out with science bit ofko. But it's genuinely, really cool how these two organisms rely on each other. When you eat a fig, you're not cruncing into wasp grubs or ex as skeletons. Just seeds the fig plant produces engymes that leak out from damaged tissues,. And that dissolves any insect chunks into macro molecules that are reabsorbed and used. A study found that when they tried to lay eggs without distributing pollen, the tree didn't hold up its end of the bargain.

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