Montclair High School Bio Blog: Give Peas a Chance!

AUG

Peas, you either love them or you hate them. We grow them in Rand Park in our garden.

So, what's the deal with peas? Between 1856 and 1863, Gregor Mendel conducted a series of experiments using pea plant, which would eventually become the basis for genetics. By testing for single gene traits, such as plant height, pod color, casing, and flower color, he was able to show regular patterns of inheritance. His choice of pea plants was important because the traits are controlled in a dominant and recessive way, as opposed to codominant or polygenetic, which would not such clear heritability patterns. We wanted to explore pea plants further, so we turned to Rand Park.

In our garden at Rand Park, there is an abundance of peas. Although some of us were initially afraid to get our hands dirty, we quickly took a liking to harvesting the peas. The plants themselves are beautiful with the pea pods emerging from little white flowers. With a trellis, these plants could be gorgeous and flourish even more.

Figure 1: Raised beds

Figure 2: Pea pod emerging from the flower

After harvesting so many pea pods, we began to realize the impact of this garden. The amount of food that can be collected and donated from a school garden is frankly incredible and it is such a good feeling to have been involved in it. As a matter of fact, two of us went back to the garden beds during lunch to get these pictures, and we also tasted a few! They were delicious and fresh; incomparable to the ones you can get at the grocery store.