Mendel selected pea plants to carry out his study on the inheritance of characters from parents to offspring.
He selected a pea plant because of the following features.
- Peas have many visible contrasting characters such as tall/dwarf plants, round/wrinkled seeds, green/yellow pod, purple/white flowers, etc.
- Peas have bisexual flowers and therefore undergo self pollination easily. Thus, pea plants produce offsprings with same traits generation after generation.
- In pea plants, cross pollination can be easily achieved by emasculation in which the stamen of the flower is removed without affecting the pistil.
- Pea plants have a short life span and produce many seeds in one generation.
