Which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. All organisms have to reach a certain stage of growth and maturity in their life before they can reproduce sexually and that period of growth is called the vegetative phase in plants. 2. Bamboo species flower only once in their lifetime, generally after 50-100 years, produce a large number of fruits and die.

Which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. All organisms have to reach a certain stage of growth and maturity in their life before they can reproduce sexually and that period of growth is called the vegetative phase in plants. 2. Bamboo species flower only once in their lifetime, generally after 50-100 years, produce a large number of fruits and die. Correct Answer Both 1 and 2

The correct answer is Both 1 and 2.

Key Points

• All organisms have to reach a certain stage of growth and maturity in their life before they can reproduce sexually.
  • That period of growth is called the juvenile phase. It is known as a vegetative phase in plants. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• This phase is of variable durations in different organisms.
• The end of juvenile/vegetative phase which marks the beginning of the reproductive phase can be seen easily in the higher plants when they come to flower. 
• In some plants, where flowering occurs more than once.
• Plants –the annual and biennial types, show clear cut vegetative, reproductive and senescent phases, but in the perennial species it is very difficult to clearly define these phases.
• A few plants exhibit unusual flowering phenomenon; some of them such as bamboo species flower only once in their life time, generally after 50-100 years, produce large number of fruits and die. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• Another plant, Strobilanthus kunthiana (neelakuranji), flowers once in 12 years.

Additional Information 

• Its mass flowering transformed large tracks of hilly areas in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu into blue stretches and attracted a large number of tourists.
• In animals, the juvenile phase is followed by morphological and physiological changes prior to active reproductive behaviour.
• The reproductive phase is also of variable duration in different organisms.