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Plants follow different pathways in response to environment or phases of life to form different kinds of structures. This ability is called:
The ability of plants to follow different developmental pathways in response to environmental cues or phases of life to produce different structures is defined as Plasticity (e.g., heterophylly in cotton, coriander, larkspur, and buttercup)! Match Option (3)!
Plants exhibit developmental flexibility termed plasticity:
NCERT categorizes heterophylly under plasticity into two distinct classes: - Developmental (Phase-dependent): Leaves of juvenile plant differ from mature plant, e.g., cotton, coriander, larkspur. - Environmental: Leaves produced in air differ from submerged leaves in water, e.g., buttercup (*Ranunculus*).
Diagnose every choice: Know exactly why the right option works and why distractors fail.
Elasticity is a physical/mechanical property of returning to original shape after stress, not a developmental biological adaptation.
Flexibility is a general descriptive term, not the scientific term defined in plant physiology.
Plasticity is the canonical biological term for the ability to produce different structures along alternative developmental pathways.
Maturity refers to the completion of growth and reproductive readiness, not phenotypic adaptability.
Terms like "Flexibility" sound biologically intuitive. However, NCERT strictly uses the technical term "Plasticity".
"Plants follow different pathways in response to environment or phases of life to form different kinds of structures. This ability is called plasticity."
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