Spearmint

By doing this they have effectively secured their survival. We will never stop growing them.

Unfortunately.

I hate mint, it's been put into WAY too much damn stuff, and is 98% of toothpaste flavors. It took me way to long to find a toothpaste that was JUST cinnamon not "Cinnamon-mint" or "minty cinnamon" or "Cinnamon with a BLAST of mint" just plain cinnamon.
- i don't hate mint but i really want to try cinnamon toothpaste now
- Me, too. I haaaaaate mint toothpaste.
  
  Just discovered coconut ginger toothpaste a little over a year ago. I'm sticking with this toothpaste for life.
- I like mint in general but hate mint toothpaste, try children's toothpaste, it often comes without mint.
- dr bronners cinnamon toothpaste is the best
- There is esoteric toothpaste that has no mint due to it blocking homeopathy. It is otherwise identical.
The other thing their evolution has done is make it so we can't stop it growing lol. Never ever plant that stuff in anything but a container. Maybe not even that. It spreads by wind and magic.
- You are NOT kidding!
  
  I've got a stubborn patch of mint growing in a big ceramic pot with an endangered dune cactus, and they get left to fend for themselves 24/7-365 outdoors at a beach cottage... in New England!
  
  Both plants have thrived in their pot for nearly two decades now!

Mint, peppers, and caffeine, the holy trinity of "plant defenses that did not work on humans."

Counterpoint; those plants are now cultivated in huge numbers, thus ensuring the successful and continued propogation of their genetic legacies.

From an evolutionary perspective, those defences worked too well.
- Literally no quality will guarantee a species survival in the modern world more than being delicious to humans.
- But I bet we have vastly reduced their generic diversity so if humans disappear they will have more issues to survive without us.
On the other hand, being useful to humans have made them some of the most widespread and successful plant species on the planet.
- Being useful to humans is the single most important factor in evolutionary success rates.
  
  Sure, there's 8 billion of us, but we collectively KILL ~~30 billion~~ 70. 70 goddamn billion chickens every year, and there's always more of those fuckers. We kill more than double the number of chickens every year than are ever currently even alive. That's how many chickens there are.
- Grass: is useless
  
  Humans: "Growing a nutritionally useless plant demonstrates that Im so wealthy I can afford to waste arable land"
  
  Grass: is now one of the dominant species on earth
Lol pls.

That's the r-rated version.

The true trinity is nicotine, cocaine and opiates.

And also,

"Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced."

— Terence McKenna
- Yang?
Particularly peppers lol.

Ah, mild pain! The perfect addition to my diet.
- To be fair, they also have vitamins and sugar.
Cilantro: best I can do is 20%.
Hallucinogens, nicotine, caffeine, all evolved for plant defense and all of them are used recreationally.
Also, don´t forget THC
- THC is a heat shock defence. The fact it has such an effect on us is purely coincidental.
And Willow, tobacco... You could also count things like Digitalis, which are rather toxic but usefull medications.
HFY! or are Space Orcs.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/magic-mushrooms-hallucinogenic-chemical-properties-insects-eat-defensive-measure-a8233581.html

"Can you make me spicy as fuck so no creatures want to eat me?"

"OK bruv flawless plan."

Still a good joke as we're mammals, but peppers's spice is so that birds, and not mammals, eat their seeds and poop them out far away as birds aren't bothered by capsaicin.
- lending purpose to an evolutionary trait is a mistake. It is possibly that mechanism by which they attained some degree of success, but evolution doesn't 'think' unless youre into predeterminism like that.
- Birds going to their local Mexican and complaining that the 'Anus Scorcher Tacos' are too bland
And it would have worked flawlessly if it weren't for humans, the single most metal species to have ever graced this planet, that likes to subject itself to mild and moderate suffering for amusement and recreational purposes.
Also humans: Imma smoke you too

In fact, humans started cultivating mint and chili, hence it worked

There are billions of cows, chickens, etc. in the world. Purely by numbers, those species are incredibly successful. Yet, If not for humans finding them tasty and easy to manage, we would not have bred them to this degree and they wouldn't have reached this degree of success. Somehow, against all odds, being tasty/something we want to eat has somehow become an incredibly valuable and successful adaptation.

Evolution is absolutely wild, and this really drives home the fact that evolution isn't about the individual's likelihood of survival, but their likelihood of reproduction.
- Depends on how you define success. If you look purely at population numbers, yes. However, if you look at how they live in industrial animal mass production facilities, no.
- Well, now it has. But uhhh, rest in pieces to all those species that were tasty ,but too much of a hassle
- Didnt work so well for the mammoth and Aurochs. I guess you have to be a manageable size.

A highly adaptative strategy. The plan failed very successfully.

Permanently Deleted

"But little did nature know that man loves to SUFFER"

What's this now?

You got some explaining to do!
- Shhhh. It's ok. You have fresh breath now.

why does it feel like i can breath better while chewing very minty gum? i mean i assume it's just an illusion but i've always wondered

Menthol increases your mouth's sensitivity to coldness. The air you breathe in is generally cooler than your mouth, so the air moving by as you breathe is much more noticeable.
- Oh cool, that's interesting! Thanks!
  
  That also explains why drinking cold water almost hurts after having a mint lol
It may be some or other thing with your nose. For instance runny nose after eating spicy food is a known atypical reaction and happens a lot with people with deformed nose wall
- affecting 80% of people
- I didn't know that a runny nose from spicy food wasn't a typical reaction! Neat! I'm not surprised that my nasal wall is likely deformed like the rest of me hahaha. Thanks for the interesting information!