Mendel's genetics work used which plant to study heredity?

• A. Bean Plant
• B. Pea Plant
• C. Corn Plant
• D. Rice Plant

Answer: (B)

Pea plants were used because they offer a practical, controllable system for studying inheritance. Mendel could easily create true-breeding lines by allowing self-pollination, so traits appeared in consistent, predictable ways. He also could cross-pollinate by hand to produce hybrids, which let him observe how traits segregate in the next generation. Peas also display many traits in two clear forms (such as round or wrinkled seeds, yellow or green seeds), and they have a short generation time with many offspring. This combination—controlled breeding, rapid generations, and discrete, observable traits—made it possible to uncover the patterns Mendel described.

Other plants like bean, corn, or rice don’t provide the same ideal mix. They either pose more difficulty for controlled crosses or don’t show the same straightforward, easily observable dominant-recessive trait patterns within a practical experiment, making it harder to extract clear, repeatable inheritance principles.