The brightly coloured petals in some plants is an adaptive colouration for

Step 1: Analyze the question The question asks why some plants have brightly coloured petals. We need the function that this "adaptive colouration" serves.

Step 2: Explain the concept Adaptive colouration is colouring that helps an organism survive or reproduce. In flowering plants, bright petals work as a visual signal. Insects such as bees, butterflies and moths, and birds such as sunbirds, are drawn to colourful flowers. When they visit to collect nectar or pollen, they transfer pollen grains from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another. This is pollination.

Step 3: Check each option

• A. Feeding: Plants make their own food by photosynthesis, mainly in green leaves. Petal colour does not help with this.
• B. Pollination: Correct. Bright petals attract pollinators, which carry pollen between flowers.
• C. Dispersal: Seed and fruit dispersal is aided by features such as wings, hooks, or fleshy, colourful fruits. Petals are not the structures involved.
• D. Shedding: Petals do fall off (senescence) after fertilisation, but their colour has nothing to do with this.

Step 4: Answer The correct option is B. pollination.

Tip: Link the parts of the flower to their jobs:

• Bright petals and scent → attract insects → pollination
• Bright, fleshy fruits → attract animals → dispersal

In WASSCE, if you see "petals" together with "colour", think of pollination first.