TSOTS blog post 8 nick fordyce

 

1. Which part (anatomy) or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to exhibit the most variation (greatest number of different forms)? Which part or characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to show the greatest range of variation (biggest difference between one extreme and its opposite)? Use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer. The characteristic of the Brassica oleracea plants that seem to exhibit the most variation is the ratio of length to width size of the leaves on the variety of plants. for example one of the plants the ratio from length to width of the leaf is 1.14 cm, another leaf's ratio of length to width is 1.75 cm, and the last plants' leaf is .93 cm. this shows a great variety and most variation in terms of traits of the plants. the greatest range of size between the ratio of the leaves is .93 cm compared to 1.75 cm. that is a .82 cm difference between ratio of leaf size between the plants and that is pretty big.
2. Using the terms that follow, explain why you think there is so much variability in the domestic forms of Brassica oleracea: traits, selective breeding, artificial selection, genes, descent with modification, natural variations, mutations

The plants flowers don't show that much variation. They mostly look the same. The plants leaves has a lot of variety. Most of the leaves on the plants are different sizes and the outline is sometimes different. Mostly now these days, people do selective breeding which is when people select certain types of genes for plants like brassica oleracea to make them better. Artificial selection is when people select certain phenotypes. Some mutations could contribute to the plants' looks and genotypes. This could help with the plants traits and genes. Descent with modification would be the most likely reason for the plants looks because it is the natural way an organism reproduces. There is a lot of natural variation in these plants. The stem and flower looks like it has the least variation because the stem is just the stem and it's just the base for the plant and the flower is always the same because the flower is not the main part so it doesn't have much variety for not being

3. Which part (anatomy) of the Brassica oleracea plants seems to be most consistently the same in all of the examples in our garden, regardless of how extreme the differences between other parts of the same plants may be? Why do think this is so? Again, use and include data collected from multiple measurements to support your answer. The anatomy of the brassica oleracea plants that seem to be the most consistently the same is for sure the shape of the flowers sprouting off of the plants. As it shows in these four pictures below the flower look similar to identical and they are from four different varieties of Brassica oleracea. I think that they are all similar to one another because even tough these plants are not the same they all come from the same roots as in Brassica oleracea and that is their ancestor(beginning).

What would plant breeders have to do in order to get the body part or characteristic you described above (in your response to question #3) to become much different than it is presently? Well the flowers are not much different because they come from the same original plant. For plant breeders I suggest growing the plants at the same time that you want the flowers to grow the same shape as. Also I suggest growing the same type of plant. Well not the same exact type, but 2 or more from the plant they originally came from.