Question

You are walking through a mixed evergreen-deciduous forest, where approximately 10 percent of the trees are eastern hemlocks, a species of evergreen tree that casts very deep shade on the forest understory. Interestingly, under every eastern hemlock, you find the same small herbaceous plant species. However, you never observe this species anywhere else, even though a healthy diversity of other species live throughout the forest understory. You expect the small herbaceous species to have _____ growth, _____ sexual maturity, _____ energy expended on seeds, and _____ reproduction. Please choose the correct answer from the following choices, and then select the submit answer button. Answer choices fast; early; high; no vegetative slow; late; low; vegetative slow; early; low; vegetative fast; early; low; vegetative slow; late; high; no vegetative

Answer 1

Answer: slow; late; low; vegetative

Explanation: Due to the casting of deep shade on the forest understory by eastern hemlock, direct sunlight and other necessities for photosynthesis and other life processes needed by the herbaceous plant species for optimum growth is being deprived.

However, coupled with the nature of these herbaceous plant species, having non-woody stems with their growth above the ground level often dieing off particularly in winter in the temperate zone, makes their growth in that kind of location to be stunted.

Thus, herbaceous plant species with slow growth rate leading to late sexual maturuty while having low expanded energy on seeds due to low photosynthetic rate and low vegetative reproduction should be expected.