Principles of Inheritance and Variation — BIOLOGY STD 12 Science — Question

Mendel selected pea plant for his experiment because of the following reasons:
1. Pea plant is annual and ephemeral i.e. short life span this is why several generation can be studied in a short time period.
2. This is bisexual plant i.e. male and female reproductive organs are found in the same plant.
3. Flowers in pea plants are cleistogamous and butterfly shaped, therefore male and female reproductive organs are enclosed in boat shaped corolla which favour self-pollination as a rule. Artificial cross pollination can be made easily by emasculation in these flowers.
4. Purity of characters is maintained in pen plants over generations due to self-pollination.
5. Pea plant has several contrasting pairs of characters like tallness and dwarfness for height of plant. Mendel selected 7 pairs of contrasting characters in different varieties of pea plants.