Blog Post #7

We are experimenting with Brassica Oleracea.  Now, I cannot tell much about its parent plants because I have not looked at thousands of different Brassicas.  But, even I can see this plant's very

prominent red stem.  That may have been something passed down from its parent plants.  It is also hard to predict the traits of this plant's offspring because we have not seen the plant that it would
fertilize with.

However, traits that our plants offspring did get from it would be a result of our brassica's gametes.  These gametes are created via meiosis.  As you can see from the video that you may have just watched meiosis is the formation of haploid cells.  These gametes then fertilize with another plant in order to make new plants.  This is also how our plant ill pass on its genetic information to the next generation.  Since the new plants are being formed with its haploid cells, the new plant has a part of ours in it too.

 

Our plant's offspring will probably end up looking mostly like our plant now, but with a few changes.  We can by no means however, guarantee exactly what it will look like.

 

All Brassica Oleracea are the same species but they are obviously very different.  This is because all Brassica have different genes which make them able to have starch in different areas of the plant.  Farmers over time have realized this and specially bred different brassica in order to get the different varieties that we have today.