It couldn't reproduce.

Plants can reproduce different ways and removing a flower from a plant doesn't necessarily mean that it cannot reproduce itself. There are plants that can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Some flowering plants can not only reproduce by seed from a fertilized flower(sexual reproduction) but can also reproduce by making additional bulbs or additional in ground stems from which new plants arise; these stems are call rhizomes and the cloning of the plant from bulbs or rhizomes is called asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction will produce additional plants with no genetic variation (this can be very boring) whereas sexual reproduction will produce many different varieties of the same plant which can be very interesting ( suggest you read about the work of Gregor Mendel). I have tried to make what is a really complex topic as simple as I could. Now, can you find and name some plants that can reproduce themselves both sexually and asexually, one plant utilizing both methods together and plants that do this separately? Also, can you name a plant that has separate sexual organs and a plant that has both sexual organs? As far as asexual reproduction is concerned, back in the 1960's myself and others duplicated the work of scientist F.E. Steward by growing a carrot plant from a single root cell of a carrot and these were the initial steps in attempts to intentionally clone living things from a single cell. Yes, we humans do manage to get into the act one way or another:)

Well, you've had a detailed answer, but put simply, a plant which has had its flowers removed cannot produce seed, but, as already said, there are other ways for plants to increase themselves. The only plants that would be very seriously affected by flower removal would be annuals, those that grow, flower, get pollinated/fertilised, set seed and die in a single year, and biennials, which grow a clump one year and grow taller and flower the following year, then die. Remove their flowers, and there'll be no more...unless there are seeds from earlier years present in the ground already.

Is this an exam question Sagee4?

If it is an exam question its been answered properly for a change which I personally think is very good, too often such a query would be shot down in flames immediately..

Well, the trouble is, Lincslass, giving a good answer on here means the person who's sitting the exam doesn't really know their stuff - they're just parroting information rather than learning it properly, with their own research. So what might seem, at first, to be a helpful and useful response, long term probably doesn't do the asker any favours

I know it seems the easy way to do things and not the way we were taught but in this day of the internet I'm afraid I don't blame anyone for using it to get their answers, whether one is copying out of a book, googling or asking on a forum such as this, they are looking for the answer, whether it stays in the brain is another issue and lets be honest a lot of research done from books gets forgotten a lot of the time, I just thought it was nice to see a decent answer instead of sarky comments for a change, also as I've said many times over the years I myself have learnt a lot from others questions and found it very interesting....

But if you've got someone who's only going through the motions to get a pass in an exam, and they then want to go on to work in the horticultural field, they wouldn't be too wonderful at their jobs, would they... If its an exam in a subject they'll never use, then what you've said has merit... but really, its someone who can't even trouble to do the research on the internet themselves - as you rightly say, its all out there, and that's where they should seek it, really, rather than just asking someone else. There's no substitute for engaging the brain - if you don't think, pretty soon, you won't be able to... Come to think of it, that might be why I keep seeing medical people like nurses and a couple of doctors constantly on Google during the consultation, then repeating back to me what I've already looked up myself earlier...

Of course, it may be the person who asked the question isn't sitting an exam anyway....

Thats right Bamboo!......the first thing they do is google what they think your problem is and if you match the picture you get a printout
won't be long before its a do it yourself job ?

LOL, Sorry I'm not laughing at you but it tickled me pink what you said about doctors being on google during a consultation, I've had that happen to me as well, it makes me nervous when they do it because I sit there wondering if they actually know what they are doing, our life in their hands and all that.
Being a person who likes to read and do research anyway I will very often check up on the subjects that come up on these pages just out of interest but do know what you mean, I don't think that will ever change, as you say it keeps my brain working, being old school I'm afraid that I still think that practical experience counts a lot but afraid a lot of jobs will go to the one with the letters and certificates irrespective of actual ability... I guess unless the person comes back to the page we'll never know, at least we haven't chased them away, lol...

Frightening thing Pamg is they still manage to get it wrong!

Mg I have to be thankful for them this year but they have had me spitting feathers in the past, both for myself and members of my family....

I am thankful for them but do not appreciate seeing a consultant who never actually looks at me during the whole time I'm in the room as he is too busy looking at his computer screen! Our old GP, who is now retired, would look at his screen and then turn it towards the patient and explain what he was seeing and what it meant. Such a little thing todo but made me feel I was part of what was going on!

Yes know what you mean, one of ours sprawls in his chair with his hands on his head, makes you feel as though you are completely wasting his time, needless to say a lot of the patients prefer to go upstairs and patiently wait in the queue to see the other doc...

Seemed like an exam question to me too that's why I added a few "now go and find out" questions and a "why don't you read about" subject. I don't mind giving a little push towards knowledge but one of the most important things a young mind... and I assumed it was......can learn is to develop a method of how to find out about things and gather information in a methodical structured way. A far as your good doctor googling information on a malady on the web, when this good old doctor found himself scratching his head about how to diagnose and treat a patient he opened up the cookbook of medicine, aka, the MERK MANUAL.....which can now be found on the web too! Yup, I kept this book in a desk drawer and when I told a patient "pardon me, I'll be right back" it was for the purpose of getting to that precious little book:)

Ah, the Merck manual - nothing dishonorable about consulting a text book, Loosestrife, especially if its a condition you don't come across every day, but I despair of the medical professionals who simply spout what google says - for one thing, I'm supposed to take that on board as new information, when anyone with half a brain cell would know I'd already looked everything up already, I just wanted a proper medic's assessment. About 75% of the time, it seems I know more than the nurse practitioner does.... but heaven forfend you should make the mistake of letting them realise that with some of them, I actually pretend ignorance sometimes to keep the atmosphere bearable... not much point in upsetting them, I'm clearly not going to get the help I need anyway. I'll confess to, at times, resorting to a private GP at the local BUPA place, £70 a pop, but really, worth every penny when you're in a bind...

By the way, I'm always a bit suspicious about the Merck manual (not that I use it personally) because I always think it might be produced by Merck, Sharpe and Dome, if they still exist, a large pharma company, and I really don't trust the big pharmas...

Merk has always walked the straight and narrow with their manual. As I said I always had the book in my desk drawer (the desk is gone but I still have the one book given to me) and on top of my desk I always had my first Dr's Bag with my name on it in gold ...now pretty well rubbed off...given to me compliments of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company...there were plenty of other comps too, but those days are just about gone now. You are right Bamboo, one can glean a lot of medical knowledge from the web, but what will always be absent are the thousands of things that one learns by directly dealing with the patient and the patient's problems.
Things learned which cannot be found in books or put into words but can be expressed in the treatment of the patient and that is what one calls the ART of medicine. What I fear the most these days is that the present practitioners of medicine are not being given enough time to be with their patients to develop this, to put it another way, instinct for treatment. Experience gleaned from dealing with things directly and being given the time to think about what one is doing can be very well found in gardening too. Just look at the answers that GOY members give to some of the questioners, one could never find those answers in a book or the web for that matter.

You're preaching to the converted here, Loosestrife - I was lucky enough to have a great GP (doctor) for 20 years or so, and some of the time, she admitted freely she was simply working on gut instinct, because she knew the patient well and had years of experience. And she never, ever got anything wrong with me or any member of my family, in fact, at times, she struck me as inspired and quite brilliant, but those were the days where they knew you, had conversation with you, a proper family doctor as opposed to today's 6 minute appointments with a random practitioner communing with the computer rather than you. I know things change all the time, but some changes are not for the better...

Exactly Bamboo.

8,000 patients here and surrounded villages for 2 partners a paid doctor and a locum if nessesary....incredibly hard to get to see one....you see the nurse, at least these days they can prescribe which we can't do ourselves........yet!

I love how we go off at tangents on Goy ?

Yes Pam, one has to keep coming back, lol, at the moment the questions page moves quicker than any of the others..

Well said Bamboo, and to Sagee4 you've discovered that we don't just talk about plants :)

If (s)he's still with us...

No better in London, Pam - I haven't seen an actual NHS GP for 3 years. Partially my fault, we have two regular GPs and they're both useless - one always misdiagnoses (but you can get an appointment with him within a day, I wonder why...) and the other lectures you about smoking for ten minutes, leaving no time at all to talk about that thing that's on your foot or whatever, he usually says you'll have to come back about that, no time now (infuriating, I don't know how I've not torn him off a strip, he's obviously a born again ex smoker) and one other doctor one afternoon a week, no idea what she's like, never got to see her. So its nurse practitioners or nothing if you need to be seen...

What a state of affairs Bamboo......our surgery is in special measures to beimproved by christmas.....or else!....or else whst I haven't a clue......
seems drugs were out of date, no proper care plans......
de da de da de da.....

Ooh, ouch, now that sounds much worse than mine...

No one has really mentioned plants such as Bryophyllum diagromentia (spelling?) which reproduce vegatively.
So if it was an exam question/coursework it was a bit of a duff question so we can now muse over the state of our education system ;)

Or rather the educational system in the US which is where Sagee4 is.

He sems to be lost the other side of the pond anyway.....
still its been an interesting chat ?

Well, Meanie, no one mentioned ferns and how they reproduce without involving flowering either... but the question was specifically about what would happen if you removed a flower...

I intentionally left out the non flowering spore sprinklers and plantlet producers....as per what bamboo has related above. It is my hope that the presumed student tried many avenues to answer the question. I do find that the US educational system as it is today is turning out a legion of dense blockheads.

Um, I hate to agree Loosestrife but I think you are right... same is happening in the UK where folk now get a degree for something they would once have got a 'City & Guilds' Certificate for! Soon you will get a degree in being a bin lorry driver!

Ha ha, oh, again Loosestrife you've hit the nail on the head for me - I've spent the last five years wondering if its normal for old people (meaning me) to think that younger people are really quite dense/ignorant, because there seem to be so many of them. I can't help feeling its a combination between actual stupidity and ignorance and a lack of interest and sense of community - no one seems to care much about anything any more, they're all just going through the motions when it comes to their jobs. And that includes the medical profession, by and large, with odd exceptions. Seems to be a box ticking society here...