Reasons for Mendel’s Success : 

• Mendel selected only pure breeding varieties of Pea (Pisum sativum) for his experiments. 

• Mendel took only those traits for his studies which did not show linkage, interaction or incomplete dominance. 

• Mendel took one or two characters at one time for his breeding experiments while his predecessors often studied all the traits simultaneously. 

• Mendel’s experimental plant Pea (Pisum sativum) is ideal for controlled breeding. It is 

• cross-breed manually while normally it undergoes self breeding. 

• He took care to avoid contamination from foreign pollen grains brought by insects. 

• Mendel kept a complete record of every cross, subsequent self breeding and the number of seeds produced. 

• He formulated theoretical explanations for interpreting his results. His explanations were further tested by him as to their validity. 

• Mendel used statistical methods and law of probability analysing his results. 

• Mendel was lucky in selecting those traits, the genes of which were either present on different chromosomes or showed recombination. (Any four points)