A Matter of Selection

The part that seems to exhibit the most variation is the leaves and the stock. The size of plants seems to show the greatest variation also the quantity of produce varies. The brussel sprouts can grow up to two plus feet tall and can have more than thirty sprouts at one time. The stock of brussel sprouts are just a couple inches in diameter. The brussel sprouts stock is tall, thin, and strong. A cabbage stock is short, big, and strong. A cabbage’s stock is a few inches at the bottom and only an inch or so tall. The stock gets larger moving towards the top of the plant. The cabbage is only grown one at a time and is roughly eight to ten inches in diameter.

Certain plants have certain traits. Brussel sprouts have traits that make them thin and tall. Selective breeding allows certain plants to grow with modifications to suit the environment. This breeding is acted upon by humans. Like animals, plants also have genes. They receive their genes from the female parts and the male parts of plants. Unlike artificial breeding, natural variation allows plants to adapt to their environment on their own. These are called mutations. This occurs to the phenotype and after, descent with modification will begin. This means that this plant's offspring will have these same mutations.

The shape of the brassica oleracea are very similar. They all contain an abundance of leaves that are very tight together. For example spinache, spinache has many leaves and is no taller than ten inches tall. Kale is the same way. I believe that brassica oleracea are similar because they have a common ancestor and common traits. This is known do to the phenotype of the brassica oleracea, they all look similar. When looked deep into the genes of brassica oleracea, the plants are related. They all have common genes, but like humans, they all have slight differences.

Breeders artificially breed to get a common characteristic so plants can be suited to their environment. This allows plants to grow better because they are not undergoing competition among other plants. If this artificial selection did not occur, than brassica oleracea plants will not grow as well as others.