What type of inheritance pattern involves a blend of traits?

Incomplete dominance is the correct choice for this question because it describes a specific type of inheritance pattern where the offspring exhibit a phenotype that is a blend of the parental traits. In cases of incomplete dominance, neither allele is fully dominant over the other; instead, when both alleles are present, they combine to create a new phenotype that is intermediate between the traits expressed by each parent.

For example, consider a scenario where one parent has red flowers (RR) and another has white flowers (WW). Incomplete dominance would result in the offspring having pink flowers (RW), which reflects a blend of the red and white traits.

Codominance, while it also involves both alleles being expressed, results in both traits being fully and separately expressed rather than blended, such as in the case of blood types where A and B alleles both manifest in type AB blood. Complete dominance involves one allele completely masking the effect of another, leading to a distinct phenotype based solely on the dominant allele. Sex-linked inheritance refers to traits that are associated with genes located on sex chromosomes and operates under its own set of rules, not involving blending of traits.

Therefore, the characteristic of an intermediate phenotype distinctly identifies the concept of incomplete dominance.