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simplyputsi

Can you get it drunk?

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I don't know why but the other day these thoughts popped into my head.

What things can you get drunk, other than people. Of course your dog or cat, but what about say a tree.
I'm dead serious. If you had a confined environment and gave the tree water but also watered it with alcohol what would happen. It is a living organism, would it get a buzz?

My guess is it might die, but it might also just choose not to absorb the alcohol, thus my question. Is it possible?
hmmmmm....
Skymama's #2 stalker -

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my bet is no. The alcohol molecules are much larger than water molecules. The water molecules are moved through the tree through active transport, and the mechanism of active transport probably wouldnt take the alcohol anywhere. Plus, the alcohol once outside the closed container would evaporate fairly quickly.

It has been a while since BIO 101 and Chem 101.
The primary purpose of the Armed Forces is to prepare for and to prevail in combat should the need arise.

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If something doesn't have any sort of nervous system, how can it get drunk?? Does it start to grow funny, or what?:P Does it drop acorns on your head & laugh, maybe?



Trees do have some sort of internal system though. And that is what I wonder. If you could, how would you know? Maybe it would dehydrate the tree just like us and it would die.

I'm not buying the it can't be absorbed part. Trees absorb larger minerals that alcohol.
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If something doesn't have any sort of nervous system, how can it get drunk?? Does it start to grow funny, or what?:P



Basically, yes. Research at Cornell has shown that concentrations above 10% in the rootzone of paperwhite narcissi were found to be toxic, but 4-6% was found to stunt stem and leaf growth without affecting flower size, thereby making the flowers less prone to drooping or falling over.

See drunk flowers :D

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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So flowers are actually *less* prone to drooping and falling over when they get drunk?

Clearly doesn't affect them quite the same way. :D
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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Alcohol is a metabolic poison to most animals (and plants.) Enough alcohol will kill most living things - so enough alcohol will indeed change a tree.

The term "drunk" is a feeling we happen to like when we are using said poison; most people think the effects on our nervous systems at sub-fatal levels is pleasant. It has similar effects on the nervous systems of other higher animals (birds, squirrels) but I don't know if they perceive it as pleasant. Some do (like monkeys) since they will take it if offered even after feeling its effects.

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Bears, too. Remember the one that kept eating fermented berries and stumbling around campsites? Or was that a boogie? Hmmmm.
Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

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The term "drunk" is a feeling we happen to like when we are using said poison; most people think the effects on our nervous systems at sub-fatal levels is pleasant. It has similar effects on the nervous systems of other higher animals (birds, squirrels) but I don't know if they perceive it as pleasant. Some do (like monkeys) since they will take it if offered even after feeling its effects.



In early autumn wasps often get drunk after feeding from rotting apples. I don't think they seek it out but it does affect them.
Do you want to have an ideagasm?

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I hear that in Africa, one of the most dangerous things is drunk elephants (from eating fermented fruit).

whoops, did some checking. apparently it's BS.

elephants do get drunk in India from drinking rice wine, however.
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I hear that in Africa, one of the most dangerous things is drunk elephants (from eating fermented fruit).

whoops, did some checking. apparently it's BS.

elephants do get drunk in India from drinking rice wine, however.



but does drinking rice wine in India make an elephant dangerous?
Goddam dirty hippies piss me off! ~GFD
"What do I get for closing your rig?" ~ me
"Anything you want." ~ female skydiver
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Alcohol is a metabolic poison to most animals (and plants.) Enough alcohol will kill most living things - so enough alcohol will indeed change a tree.



Another question I had is what if the tree you treat bears fruit, like oranges, apples, or pears. Would the fruit then have a taste of alcohol in it? That cornell study said it didn't affect the flower, so one would think it wouldn't affect the fruit either. Fruit grows from the nutrients given to the tree though does it not?

If I had a actual yard I would try this. My mom might get a little po'd if I experiment on her peach tree.
Skymama's #2 stalker -

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in 9th grade bio, before we got into disections and whatnot we had to do cell observations under the microscope, and we looked at some kind of paracites or something, and our teacher made us put a drop of alcohol on them and then watch to see what happened... it made them slow down a whole lot, they started banging into each other and eventually they died :)
"life does throw curveballs sometimes but it doesn't mean we shouldn't still swing for the homerun" ~ me

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I hear that in Africa, one of the most dangerous things is drunk elephants (from eating fermented fruit).

whoops, did some checking. apparently it's BS.

elephants do get drunk in India from drinking rice wine, however.



but does drinking rice wine in India make an elephant dangerous?



That depends on how pretty you have made the elephant by the amount of rice wine, and if you give the elephant a reach around.:D
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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