Co-dominance is a form of inheritance where both alleles for a trait are fully expressed in the phenotype of the organism. This means that if an organism has two different alleles for a trait, such as flower color, both colors may appear in the flowers. For example, if one allele codes for red flowers and another for white flowers, the resulting flowers may display both colors simultaneously, leading to a mixed or patterned appearance. This is different from dominance, where one allele masks the expression of another, and recessive genes, which only express their traits when two copies are present. Understanding co-dominance helps explain how certain traits can appear in a blended or spotted manner in offspring.