Negev berry coaxes mice to ensure plant reproduction The
discovery shows that plant uses a toxic “mustard oil bomb” to
make the mouse serve its needs. Mouse Photo: Courtesy of
American Friends of TAU While Israelis who eat sunflower seeds
typically spit out the husks and often throw them near their
feet, a spiny mouse living in the Negev is induced by a plant
called sweet mignonette to eat the fruit and spit out the seeds.
This mechanism, just discovered by researchers at the Technion-
Israel Institute of Technology, helps the plant reproduce in an
arid climate. carried out with assistance from other Israeli and
American researchers and published on Thursday in the online
edition of the journal Current Biology, shows that the plant
uses a toxic “mustard oil bomb” to make the mouse serve its The
plant, also called taily weed, is the first known case within a
single species of what is known as the “directed deterrence”
hypothesis that “the fruit is trying to have itself eaten by the
right consumer that will spr