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Question
By looking at a plant externally can you tell whether a plant is C3 or C4? Why and how?
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Solution
- Observing a plant's leaves and other morphological features externally does not distinguish whether it is C3 or C4.
- Unlike C3 plants, the leaves of C4 plants have a special anatomy called Kranz anatomy and this difference can only be observed at the cellular level.
- For example, although wheat and maize are grasses, wheat is a C3 plant, while maize is a C4 plant.
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