Question

Which plant was selected by Mendel for his experiment? Mention the advantage of selecting that plant. List contrasting traits noted by mendel in 7 characters of that plant.

Answer 1

Mendel’s experimental plant was a common garden pea (Pisum sativum).

He selected garden pea for the following reasons :

• The pea plant is small, annual and easy to grow.
• The plant is naturally self-pollinating but can be easily cross-pollinated experimentally.
• It reproduces a large number of offsprings and completes its life cycle in one season.
• A large number of true breeding varieties of pea are available.
• The plants had a number of contrasting characters, for example, red vs. white flowers, round vs. wrinkled seeds etc.

Contrasting traits noted by Mendel in seven characters of garden pea

	Characters	Dominant	Recessive
1.	Seed shape	Round	Wrinkled
2.	Seed colour	Yellow	Green
3.	Flower colour	Violet	White
4.	Pod shape	Full	Constricted
5.	Pod colour	Green	Yellow
6.	Flower position	Axial	Terminal
7.	Stem height	Tall	Dwarf