Question

Mendel selected the garden pea plants for his experiments. Explain

Answer 1

Mendel selected the garden pea Pisum sativum for his experiments on inheritance for the following reasons:-

• They are easy to cultivate.
• Their life cycle is quite short.
• The flowers of the pea plant are bisexual. Besides performing self-pollination, these plants can undergo cross-pollination if it is performed on them.
• The true-breeding or pure plants can be easily obtained through self-pollination.
• Their characteristics can be distinguished properly without any difficulty. This means that the traits in this plant can be easily observed (for example; tall versus dwarf plant).
• These plants possess large flowers. Therefore, anthers (male) can be easily removed to make this flower cross with the pollen from another flower.