One of a Kind: The Wonders of Biodiversity

The plant that we have been experimenting with are the collard greens of the brassica oleracea family. It has a short, dark purple stem with dark green leaves branching off in a few strands. I can easily tell that my plant’s parent had the same colors, and were roughly the same size. With a punnet square, I could predict that the offspring of my plant will have very similar qualities to my plant because there is only one parent. They would acquire these traits when the information is stored in chromosomes inside the gametes. The information is then inside the seed and will show in the offspring. Even though the next generation from my plant will be very similar, it will not carry every characteristic. Because there is no competing parent like with animals, the plants will carry many of the hereditary traits. The cabbage looks so different from other species of brassica oleracea because traits were farther and farther spread apart until all of the species looked different. Short side- chain glucosinolates affect how diverse families of plants are. The brassica oleracea have a high concentration of this causing them to be very diverse. In turn, this is why the b. oleracea differ so much from their ancestors.

Collard Greens

Ornamental Kale 'Glamour Red'