this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
373 points (99.0% liked)

Science Memes

15370 readers
2604 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I remember watching this farmer make a case otherwise, that ordinary bramble (?) is specialized to ensnare and trap fluffy sheep, providing chemical nutrients to the bush.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 13 points 1 day ago

An interesting theory, but there are good reasons to doubt the claim, including the fact that woolly sheep are a recent product of human breeding, and that wild sheep are not even native to the same areas blackberries grow.

[–] Redfox8@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

There's tonnes of blackthorn and a lot of sheep in the UK and I've never heard it to be problematic. Sheep ate pretty dim, but bramble is definitely not thorny/spiney enough to get caught bar the odd occasion. I'm sure I heard about a shrub (African maybe) that sheep can get completely ensnared in and die, but can't find it!