Question

On which of the following plants, Mendel had carried out his investigations?
A) Garden pea
B) Wild pea
C) Cow pea
D) Pigeon pea

Answer 1

Hint: During a 7 year period, Mendel experimented with pea plants in the garden owned in his monastery. The scientific name of the pea plant on which Mendel had carried out his investigation is “Pisum Sativum”.

Complete answer : Mendel experimented with the inheritance of traits in pea plants with the help of blending theory of inheritance. Mendel carried out his key experiments using the garden pea. The scientific name of garden pea is Pisum sativum, as a model system. Pea plant make a convenient system for studies of inheritance and they are still studied by some geneticists today. Mendel discovered that certain traits show up in offspring without any blending off parent characteristics. For instance, the pea flowers are either purple or white.

Additional information : Mendel observed 7 traits that are easily recognized and apparently only occurs in one or 2 forms.
>Pea shape (Round or wrinkled )
>Pea colour (green or yellow)
>Pod shaped (Constricted or inflated)
>Pod colour (Green or yellow)
>Flower colour (Purple or white)
>Plant size (Tall or dwarf)
>Position of flowers (Axial or terminal)

Thus, the correct answer is option A. i.e. Garden pea.

Note: Mendel studied common garden pea because of many advantages. It was easy to cultivate and had a relatively short life-cycle of 3 months. It was easy to control the self-pollination of plants and cross fertilization between desired parents.