Quote:
Originally Posted by goodwin
I remember hearing it was Charles Rick who observed the effect of wild Galapagos tomatoes on the mating of tortoises. That was the story or a retelling of it.
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Actually Dr. Rick had nothing to do with studying the mating of tortoises/tomato seeds.
What I remembered was quite different and below is an article from TGRC where it describes how he found that wild tomato seeds needed to be "processed" by going through the digestive tract of the tortoises before they would germinate.
Although not discussed in the article they later found that enzymatic treatment of the seeds allowed for good germination, no tortoises needed.
http://tgrc.ucdavis.edu/charlie.aspx
Carolyn