Blog Post #9

Even though all of the Brassica are of the same species they can be very different.  For instance, the texture of the leaves are very different between the different types.  Some of the leaves are paper thin, but some can be up to 2 cm in thickness, while some are in between.  Also, smoothness or roughness is different for every plant.  Some are kind of stickyish, but others are smooth.

All of the Brassica may be so different because farmers may have wanted different traits in their plants.  Using artificial selection, they got the traits that they wanted from the Brassica.  The farmers only breed the plants with the traits that they wanted, or selective breeding.  All of the plants have nearly the same genes, but different genes have been unlocked in each plant.  Farmers could specially modify these plants due to descent with modification.  In descent with modification plant take traits from there parents but it can be just a little bit different.  Breeding together plants with the mutations that you want can help farmers.  Also, natural variation can make plants different too.

The leave length of the plants are very similar.  For instance, the very largest leaf is about 30 cm while the smallest is about 23 cm.  The average leaf length however is about 25 cm.  The leaves may all be large so they can all absorb lots of sunlight.

In order to make a larger or smaller life all farmers would have to do is breed together plants with very large or very small leaves.  Eventually, the plants could become very different.  So that the farmers could get what they want.