Hiking up a mountain one day, you notice a plant species that has one growth form at low elevations and a very

Question

different growth form at high elevations. You wonder if these represent two genertically dstinct populations of this species, each adapted to the prevailing conditions where they are found, or if this species has simply evolved the capacity for development flexibility and can assume either growth form, depending on lcoal conditions. what experiments could you design to distingush between these two hypothesis?

PLEASE HELP! I DONT GET IT!

Answer 1

Imagine that the plant in question is the flowering pimplegronk. At the bottom of the mountain it grows 5 feet tall, is spindly, and has flowers on every second branch all the way to the top. At the top of the mountain it grows one foot tall, is very bushy, and has flowers only on the bottom branches. The question is whether there is a lowland flowering pimplegronk and a highland flowering pimplegronk, or just flowering pimplegronks that will grow tall and spindly in the lowlands and short and bushy on the mountaintops.  When you think of it that way, what experiments could you do to answer this question?