TLW 7e Chapter 34 Answers
Plant Reproduction and Growth
Apply Your Understanding
1. Figure 34.5 Bees tend to pollinate yellow flowers, and so would not be attracted to the
light pink flowers shown below that the butterfly is visiting. Give another reason why a
bee probably wouldn’t pollinate these pink flowers.
The bee does not “see” the flower as being available as bees see only in certain
wavelengths of the visible light spectrum and in the ultraviolet range.
2. Figure 34.7 From a culinary standpoint, plant products that are sweet and juicy are
considered fruits, while other edible plant parts are often considered vegetables.
However, a fruit isn’t always sweet and juicy. Consider the following plant products and
indicate if you eat the fruit, the seed, or other parts of the plant.
1). corn
2). tomato
3). cucumber
4). peanut
5). carrot
6). potato
7). peas
8). green pepper
9). lettuce
a). seeds
b). fruit
c). fruit
d). seed
e). other part
f). other part
g). seed
h). fruit
i). other part
Synthesize What You Have Learned
1. On January 12, 2010 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. Many thousands fled
from the devastated cities to rural farms, too many people for Haiti’s farms to feed. An
agricultural company offered free seed to Haiti farmers. Not genetically engineered, the
seed grows highly productive hybrid plants, far more productive than local crops and so
able to feed many more people. However, the Haitian farmers organization refused the
seed, pointing out that local farmers cannot save seeds from the hybrid crops to plant the
following year, as the offspring of hybrid crops are puny. If Haiti’s poor farmers accept
the short-term gain of hybrid crops to feed their relatives, they ask, where would they get
seed for next year’s crop? How would you advise the Haitian farmers?
Answers will vary. The farmers should bargain with the seed companies for more free
seeds the next year given the fact that the farmers agreed to plant the free seeds the first
year. Researchers could conduct their experiments and collect data for new plant
varieties.
2. If ivy is planted next to a building, its stems attach to the side of the building and, in
time, the mat of ivy will grow upward and eventually cover the building. How is ivy able
to do this?
Ivy is subject to the tropism called thigmotropism; its stems are sensitive to touch. In a
not-well-understood reaction, the stems attach to anything nearby— tree, fence, or
building— and will grow over it.