Statement I: Plants need the help of animals for pollinating their flowers and dispersing their seeds.
Statement II: To attract pollinators and seed dispersers, plants provide rewards such as pollen, nectar, and juicy, nutritious fruits.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Both Statement I and Statement II are correct.
Mutualism is an interaction in which both species benefit. The book calls the plant-animal relationships its most striking examples. Plants get their flowers pollinated and their seeds dispersed, and the animals get paid with food.
Statement I: Plants need the help of animals for pollinating their flowers and dispersing their seeds. — True. Animals carry pollen from flower to flower and carry seeds away from the parent plant, so plants depend on animals for both of these jobs.
Statement II: To attract pollinators and seed dispersers, plants provide rewards such as pollen, nectar, and juicy, nutritious fruits. — True. Plants offer pollen and nectar to pollinators and juicy and nutritious fruits to seed dispersers, as ‘fees’ for their services.
NCERT Extract:
Population Interactions – “… The most spectacular and evolutionarily fascinating examples of mutualism are found in plant-animal relationships. Plants need the help of animals for pollinating their flowers and dispersing their seeds. Animals obviously have to be paid ‘fees’ for the services that plants expect from them. Plants offer rewards or fees in the form of pollen and nectar for pollinators and juicy and nutritious fruits for seed dispersers.”