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How Humans Benefit From Stressed Plants
Appropriating Plant DefensesPlants live the ultimate sedentary lifestyle—most of us usually think of plants more as objects than as organisms. Because plants can’t move, they’ve had to evolve a whole other way to escape threats to their well-being. Plants can “sense and respond dynamically to all sorts of stimuli: chemical concentrations in the air and soil, water, […] Ref. Source 4o
I never looked at it like that but it does make sense. Plants have to adapt because they cannot get up and move! Therefore, they have built up great resistances to the elements. Maybe the cactus is loaded with anti-oxidants!