Monday, May 11, 2009

I was standing in a big field of zinnia flowers today, cutting stems for the table. It is my neighbor's?

filed. As I look over the field for my favorite colors, I noticed white was the least dominate. Very few white zinnias with lavendar and pinks leading. Only 3 other people pick from the field , so I don't think its a favorites theory. What scientifically might be the reason in this flower world? Thanks.

I was standing in a big field of zinnia flowers today, cutting stems for the table. It is my neighbor's?
If you're looking at a field of flowers that are the product of their own reproduction and thus are completely randomly inter-breeding, then the reason for the dominance of colored flowers is because white flowers indicate the absence of pigment which would be a double recessive trait. The pink colors are caused by a group of pigments called flavonoids, most likely anthocyanin, with the variation in color from lavender to pink being determined by whether they are homozygous dominant or heterozygous. Based on Mendelian genetics, there is a one in 4 chance of a white flower, providing it is only one gene controlling the flower color.


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