Question

In 2016 Hurricane Matthew rushed off the east coast of Florida. Tropical storm winds blew the roof off the greenhouse, and the owners wrote the business off as a total loss. The building sat for two years until it was sold to new owners. The new owners assessed the remaining flower population and determined the following:

The total population of flowers in the greenhouse in 2016 was 1500 flowers. Of the 1500 flowers, there were 600 white flowers (pp).
Determine the number of pink flowers in 2016. Show your work.

Answer 1

The number of pink flowers in the greenhouse in 2016 is determined by subtracting the number of white flowers (600) from the total population of flowers (1500), resulting in 900 pink flowers. Therefore, there would be 900 pink flowers in the greenhouse in 2016.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking to determine the number of pink flowers in the greenhouse in 2016. We are given that there were 1500 flowers in total and 600 of them were white (pp). To solve this, we need to understand that in typical genetics problems, white color (pp) is usually homozygous recessive, while pink flowers could be seen as a result of incomplete dominance (for instance Pp), assuming the third flower possibility is red being the homozygous dominant (PP). Since no information is provided about the red flowers, and we know there are 600 white flowers, we can simply subtract this number from the total population of flowers to find the remaining flowers which we presume to be pink:

• 
  
• Total flowers = 1500
• 
  
• White flowers (pp) = 600
• 
  
• Pink flowers = Total flowers - White flowers
• 
  
• Pink flowers = 1500 - 600
• 
  
• Pink flowers = 900

Therefore, there would be 900 pink flowers in the greenhouse in 2016.