You buy a Schlumbergera plant, also known as a Christmas Cactus, to decorate the desk where you study late into the night. It is now December, and there are no signs of flower buds forming. What is the most plausible explanation for the lack of flowers?
A. Flowering in this plant is controlled by both day length and temperature. The warm room and extended exposure to light are preventing flower formation.
B. The room is too cold for a cactus plant, which requires hot, desert conditions to flower.
C. Cacti are gymnosperms, not angiosperms, and thus do not form flowers.
D. As a long-day plant, the cactus requires a high light to dark ratio to flower, so it must be exposed to more sunlight.
Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
What type of thinking is required?
Gather Content
What do you already know about flower production? What other information is related to the question?
Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
A. Flowering in this plant is controlled by both day length and temperature. The warm room and extended exposure to light are preventing flower formation.
Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
· The question is asking you to evaluate the cause of the lack of flower buds on a plant.
What type of thinking is required?
· Evaluate level:
o This question is asking you to evaluate the lack of flower production in certain conditions.
Gather Content
What do you already know about flower production? What other information is related to the question?
· Temperature is a variable that can affect flower production.
· Some plants require vernalization, a period of cooling, before they flower.
· Periods of uninterrupted darkness are also necessary for flower formation.
Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
· Cacti, as angiosperms, do form flowers. Since the student uses the desk where the plant is located to study, one would expect that this area has a greater temperature and a greater exposure to light that other surrounding areas. The lack of cool temperatures and the nearly constant presence of light could inhibit flower production.
Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
· Evaluate level:
o Answering this question correctly depended on your ability to weight and judge the environmental conditions that are inhibiting flower production. If you got an incorrect answer, did you remember that some plants require cool temperatures to flower, or that photoperiod must also be within a specific range for flower production? Did you have trouble weighing the merits of the environmental variables relative to flower production to determine the correct answer?
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