Answer:
Explanation:
Gregor Mendel was an European monk born on 20th July, 1822 in Czech Republic and died in 1884. Mendel was a priest by profession but he also loved gardening. Mendel as a scientist experimented with pea plants (Pisium sativum) in the garden owned in his monastery.
Amidst several plant species that could be used for experimental research, Mendel picked common garden pea plants for the focus of his research because of the following reasons:
1. They can be grown or cultivated easily in large numbers i.e they grew well in his garden and also their reproduction can be manipulated.
2. They are monoecious i.e. they have both male and female reproductive parts on the same plant, hence, they can either self-pollinate themselves or cross-pollinate with another pea plant.
3. In addition, he considered pea plants an ideal choice because they possess easily observable and distinct traits. He observed that each trait has two contrasting/alternative forms which he called a pair of contrasting traits. He studied 7 of these traits in the pea plant as follows:
a.) Flower colour (purple or white)
b.) Flower position (axil or terminal)
c.) Stem length ( long or short)
d.) Seed shape ( round or wrinkled)
e.) Seed colour ( yellow or green)
f.) Pod shape ( inflated or constricted)
g.) Pod colour (yellow or green)
