Toxicity in Fleshy Fruits: A Non-Adaptive Trait?

We compared characteristics of species with toxic vs non-toxic fleshy fruits in a nemoral-boreal area in order to examine five hypotheses proposed by C. M. Herrera in 1982. The hypotheses predict that toxicity in fleshy fruits should be associated with (1) herbaceous growth form, (2) suboptimal fruiting phenology, (3) low abundance and low fecundity, (4) high seed number, and (5) low nutrient content, as compared to non-toxic fruits. Only one of the hypotheses was supported in this study: toxic fruits were significantly over-represented among herbs