One of a Kind: The Wonders of Biodiversity

I am experimenting with the broccoli calabrese.  It is a delicate little stalk of green that, within enough time and resources, can grow into a magnificent grassy green mini-jungle.

I can infer that the organisms from which my plant descended from are similar to that of my plant because the traits and characteristics of derived from the parent plants. I can predict that the offspring of my plant will most likely be green because that seems to be a dominant trait. Also they are more likely to be tall stalks than short ones. The offspring will have a high chance of receiving these traits because the traits will pass down from the parent cells to the offspring through meiosis, the production of gamete cells. These cells carry the genes that hold the traits. However, the offspring may not look exactly like my plant, but it will relatively be the same. They will look a little different because of crossing-over and independent assortment.

The Brassica oleracea is the ancestral plant of my plants and also my classmates' plants.  However, our plants have many differences.  This is because of the genes being altered through generations and generations of independent assortment and crossing-over.  Over time, there will be many variations derived from this ancient plant, one such example being the Broccoli Calabrese.