a scientist crosses a plant with red flowers and a plant with white flowers. The off spring will most likely have

a) red flowers

b) white flowers

c) pink flowers

d) red flowers with white patches

really bad question.

if the plants are pure bred, that is homogenous, the offspring are likely to all be red (assuming red is dominant Rw)
If the red plant is not purebred, and carry the allele Rw, then crossing a Rw x ww gives rw, ww, ww, rw or half will be red, half white.

the question should have been
a scientiest crosses a pure bred plant with red flowers with a white flowered plant, the offspring will most likely have..

To determine the most likely flower color of the offspring, we need to consider the principles of inheritance and the types of alleles for flower color.

In this case, the scientist is crossing a plant with red flowers and a plant with white flowers. Flower color is often governed by genes, and in many cases, it follows the principles of incomplete dominance or co-dominance.

Incomplete dominance occurs when the heterozygous genotype results in a phenotype that is an intermediate blend of the two homozygous phenotypes. Co-dominance occurs when both alleles are expressed equally, resulting in a phenotype that shows characteristics of both alleles.

Based on this information, we can deduce that the most likely outcome for the offspring is not option a) red flowers or option b) white flowers, as these options represent purebred (homozygous) plants.

Option c) pink flowers would be the most likely outcome if the genes for red and white flowers exhibit incomplete dominance. In this case, the offspring would inherit a combination of alleles, resulting in a phenotype that is pink, as it is an intermediate blend of red and white.

However, if the genes for red and white flowers exhibit co-dominance, option d) red flowers with white patches may be the most likely outcome. In this scenario, the offspring would inherit both alleles equally and display characteristics of both red and white flowers, leading to a plant with red flowers with white patches.

Since the specific genes and inheritance patterns are not provided in the question, it is difficult to determine which option is the correct answer without further information.