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...species, comprising hundreds of varieties, of herbaceous annual plants belonging to the family Leguminosae, grown virtually worldwide for their edible seeds. Pisum sativum is the common garden pea of the Western world. While their origins have not been definitely determined, it is known that these legumes are one of the oldest of cultivated crops; fossil remains have been found in...
in angiosperm: Significance to humans )The garden, or English, pea (Pisum sativum; Fabaceae, also known as Leguminosae) is an annual, cool-weather plant cultivated for its edible green seed or pod. The pea is found throughout most temperate and tropical regions.
Mendel chose to conduct his studies with the edible pea (Pisum sativum) because of the numerous distinct varieties, the ease of culture and control of pollination, and the high proportion of successful seed germinations. From 1854 to 1856 he tested 34 varieties for constancy of their traits. In order to trace the transmission of characters, he chose seven traits that...
in heredity: Discovery and rediscovery of Mendel’s laws )...Germany, and Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg in Austria. Like several investigators before him, Mendel experimented on hybrids of different varieties of a plant; he focused on the common pea plant (Pisum sativum). His methods differed in two essential respects from those of his predecessors. First, instead of trying to describe the appearance of whole plants with all their characteristics,...
Coloration is in large measure determined genetically. As mentioned earlier, the inheritance of colour in garden peas provided part of the basis for the pioneering studies of heredity by Mendel. These studies led Mendel to postulate the existence of discrete units of heredity that segregate independently of one another during the formation of reproductive cells. The studies also led to his...
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