Question

Entrepreneurs attempted, but failed, to harvest nuts from plantations grown in Southeast Asia. Attempts to grow Brazil nut trees in South American plantations also failed. In both cases, the trees grew vigorously, produced healthy flowers in profusion, but set no fruit. Consequently, what is the likely source of the problem?
A) poor sporophyte fertility
B) failure to produce fertile ovules
C) failure to produce pollen
D) pollination failure

Answer 1

Answer:

D) pollination failure

Explanation:

Pollination failure can be caused by several factors which limit the chances of pollen being transferred to the stigmas, and/or prevents forming of fruits. In the nut trees, as a result of the self-incompatible flowers which limit the number of pollinators to only orchid bees, pollination failure is the most likely source of the problem why fruits don’t set. The selective nature of the nut flowers reduces the numbers of pollinators.