What characteristic of snapdragons complicates the interpretation of inheritance patterns?

Snapdragons are known for their unique inheritance pattern called incomplete dominance, or partial dominance. In this scenario, when red-flowered snapdragons are crossed with white-flowered snapdragons, the resulting offspring produce pink flowers rather than exhibiting the traits of one parent fully dominating the other. This blending creates a situation where the phenotypes of the parents are not distinctly visible in the offspring, leading to a range of colors rather than clear-cut dominance.

As a result, this characteristic makes it more challenging to interpret inheritance patterns since the traditional Mendelian predictions based on complete dominance do not apply. Offspring phenotypes can show intermediary traits that do not adhere strictly to classic dominant or recessive inheritance patterns, complicating genetic analysis and making it difficult to ascertain the genotypes of the parent plants based solely on the appearance of the flowers.