Question

Rose plants produce large, attractive bisexual flowers but they seldom produce fruits. On the other hand, a tomato plant produces plenty of fruits though they have small flowers. Analyse the reasons for failure of fruit formation in rose. Both these plants - rose and tomato - both selected by human beings for different characteristics, the rose for its flower and tomato for its fruit. Roses, being vegetatively propagated, do not need to produce seeds.

Answer 1

Self

incompatibility When a pistil of a flowering plant is pollinated with the pollen grains of a plant
of the same species but the gametes are not able to fuse with each other and develop zygote and hence seeds, this phenomenon is called self incompatibility.

Reasons for self incompatibility

Reasons for self incompatibility:

*Pollen is not able to germinate.

*Inability of pollen tube to penetrate into the stigma or grow inside the style of the flower.

* Abortion of the embryo.

Vegetative propagation in roses

Rose plants produce large, attractive bisexual flowers but they seldom produce fruits due to self incompatibility. Also, rose plants are mainly grown for ornamental purposes. Seeds or fruits are not important for rose plants. They are grown through vegeative propagation mainly for their flowers rather than fruits.

Fruit production in tomatoes

Tomato plant is used for producing juicy fruits. Hence, cultivators follow a method that enables them to get as many fruits as possible.

Conclusion

In both cases, the number or size of flowers on a particular plant is not the deciding factor. But the purposes for which a particular plant is grown is the main deciding factor of whether a plant will produce fruit or not.