Final answer:
Gregor Mendel chose garden pea plants for his experiments because they grow fast, are easy to raise, show clear dominant and recessive traits, and are true-breeding, which ensured reliable observation of inherited characteristics across multiple generations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Gregor Mendel chose to conduct his experiments on garden pea plants for several compelling reasons that made them an excellent choice for studying inheritance. Firstly, pea plants are fast-growing and easy to raise, which allowed Mendel to observe many generations of plants. The simplicity in managing these plants facilitated his extended research over numerous years, during which he cultivated more than 30,000 pea plants. Moreover, pea plants exhibit visible characteristics with distinct variations, such as seed form, flower color, and stem length, each with two easily identifiable traits like round or wrinkled seeds, and purple or white flowers. These clear dominant and recessive traits enabled Mendel to observe the patterns of inheritance more clearly.
The garden pea plants are also highly inbred or "true-breeding", which means they consistently produce offspring with traits that resemble the parent. This characteristic was particularly important because it minimized the appearance of unexpected traits in the progeny, making it easier to deduce the inheritance patterns. Lastly, due to their fast life cycle, the garden pea achieves maturity within one season, thus allowing Mendel to evaluate several generations within a relatively short period.