mitosis

[JoshuaWalsh]

Hello, my name is Josh, I am very interested in ecology and botany, I am researching a few things to understand them a little better.
Asexual (vegetative) reproduction produces only genetically identical offspring since all divisions are by mitosis.
When I read this, a question came to mind, If the offspring is genetically identical to the "parent" why can the two plants have different appearances on the outside, such as flowering plants, the flowers might not match to one another. If the genetics are identical should the outer appearance be as well? Is there a simple answer that I am over looking?

[JackBean]

sure it is. The answer is the enviroment, which influences the phenotype of plant.

Imagine plant with suprdupr genome growing on distilled water (w/o soil), such plant won't grow much.

Moreless, the shape of plant is not even given genetically. There is given, how much will approximatelly branch etc., but the actuall shape of plant depends on many other factors.

[JoshuaWalsh]

Thanks! that makes sense, I believe i was reading to much into just one part of what
I was studying..