Question 4
In maize, the plumule emerges above the soil but the seed leaf stays within it. What kind of germination is this, and what follows from it?
The right answer is the one marked above.
Hypogeal — the seed leaves do not photosynthesise. They supply stored food to the seedling and nothing more. Most monocotyledonous seeds germinate this way; coconut is the other example.
The two facts are really one. Seed leaves lifted into the light can photosynthesise, so in epigeal germination they do; seed leaves left in the dark cannot. Options three and four pair the right name with the wrong consequence.