Blog Post #4

The plant that our group is experimenting with is brassica oleracea.  I can tell that the plants aren't identical to their parent plants because they have evolved, but they obviously have their similarities.  The offspring of the plants will have very similar traits to their parents.  They have a higher chance of having similar traits to the parents if the plant reproduces asexually, but if they don't produce asexually (and reproduce sexually) then they will most likely have more different traits.  They would get different traits from reproducing sexually.  The male gametes transfer to the female ovules during pollination, which leads to fertilization, and the ovules grow into seeds.  The brassica oleracea can pass on its traits to the next generation by reproducing, either sexually or asexually.  They have a higher chance of producing plants with identical traits if they reproduce asexually, but if they produce sexually then they will pass on some traits, but not all, since there will be more variety.  The plants that we are growing have different traits because the plants evolve and they produce more plants that have different traits.  They also grow in different places and adapt to their environment.  Many different variations of the species came to be because the original one reproduced with other plants, which led to creation of different traits and different species.