Mendel can choose some other plant for experiments but he selected pea plant due to some reasons. Easy to Cultivate – It grew well in his garden. Its flowers were hermaphrodite, which means, pea plant has both male and female sexual organs. As the time gap between generations was short, Mendel could raise many generations of a pea within a short time. This is one of the main reasons for choosing the Pea plant.
The causes for the selection of pea plant:
(i) Pea-plant can be cultivated in the garden; Pea plants possess many varieties with well-defined characters. Among 20-30 different characters, he chooses seven different ‘unit characters’ for his study.
(ii) As the life time of each pea plant is short, the result of hybridization can be achieved within a very short tame;
(iii) The flowers of pea plants are bisexual. Self-pollination occurs easily since the plant is bisexual.
(iv) Since pea-plant is self-pollinated, the mixing of any other characters is not easily possible. As a result, the newly grown plant remains pure.
(v) Big flower of pea plant makes pollination easier. The flower is closed typed such that pollination is limited to self.
(vi) Comparative hereditary characteristics is present, thus variation can occur.
vii) As the hybrid plants are fully fertile for reproduction, pea plants can reproduce on the tune.
(viii) Contrasting characteristics, such as tall-short, etc occurs a pea plant.
(ix) The life span of a pea plant is short, thus many generations can be obtained in a single growing season. The hybrids of the pea plants produced by cross-pollination are perfectly fertile.
(x) Pea plants are also easy to cross or mate in a controlled way. This is done by transferring pollen from the anthers of a pea plant of one variety to the carpel of a mature pea plant of a different variety.
It was usually self-fertilizing (self-pollinating) that is the fertilization of plants and some invertebrate animals by their own pollen or sperm rather than that of another individual, but could also be cross-fertilized (cross-pollinated) that is the transfer of pollen grains from an anther of a flower of one plant to a stigma of a flower of another plant of the similar species.
Pea plants had the following characteristics: Useful features of peas include their rapid life cycle and the production of lots and lots of seeds.
- plants were sexually reproducing with bisexual flowers,
- self-pollination and self-fertilization is possible,
- the life cycle was completed in one season,
- hybrids were perfectly fertile.
