n is the transfer of pollen from the male reproductive organ called the stamen, to the female reproductive organ, called the pistil. Pollination is not fertilization, which comes much later. The most common helpers with pollination are flying insects, which carry the pollen on their underside to the pistil, and the wind, which blows the pollen around in hopes that it might reach another plant. Since most ofd these plants have both male and female parts, the season in which the stamens release pollen is earlier or later to when the pistil is open to fertilization, preventing the plant from fertilizing itself. These plants have many ways to attract pollinators, some, while the pollinator (an insect) is landing, shoot up their stamens so some of the pollen could get onto the insect and hopefully pollinate another plant. Another strategy for pollinating is to have the flower in such a way that the insect goes in one way, and has to brush up against the pistil and the stamens before getting out. Some plants release their pollen by the wind. An allergy sufferers nightmare. Gregor Mendel was the first scientist who studied heredity, the passing on of characteristics from parents to offspring. This was the first major study of genetics- the branch of biology that studies heredity. (Biggs, 259) Mendel was the first in predicting how traits would be passed on through generations. Traits are characteristics that are inherited from ones parents. Mendel chose to do his experiment with peas, because they have distinct sex cells, called gametes. The unison of the male and female gametes is called fertilization. Mendels first study was to breed tall and short pea plants and to study the hybrids. Hybrids are offspring of parents that have different forms of a trait, such as in Mendels experiment: height. His results for this experiment were that all the plants grew as tall as the first. This was in the first generation or F1. The parents of the F1s a...
