Final answer:
The garden pea was an excellent model for studying inheritance due to its true-breeding nature, fast growth, and short generation time, alongside having easily observable traits.
Step-by-step explanation:
One of the reasons that made the garden pea, Pisum sativum, an excellent choice of model system for studying inheritance is its ability to self-fertilize, resulting in true-breeding plants. This characteristic ensured that offspring always resembled the parents, thereby eliminating unexpected traits in the progeny that could complicate genetic analyses. Additionally, garden peas have a fast growth rate and a short generation time, which enabled Mendel to observe many generations within a relatively short period. The distinct observable traits of pea plants, such as seed shape and flower color, simplify the study of inheritance since these traits are easy to classify into categories and follow through generations.
The garden pea, Pisum sativum, was an excellent choice of model system for studying inheritance because it had several advantages. Firstly, garden peas have fast growth and a short generation time. This means that several generations can be studied over a relatively short period of time. Secondly, garden peas have the ability to self-pollinate and cross-pollinate, allowing for controlled experiments on inheritance. Lastly, garden peas have easily observable ,distinct traits that can be used to study patterns of inheritance. These traits, such as seed color and shape, flower color, and pod form, are readily visible and can be easily recorded and analyzed.