The Story of the Seed

A Matter of Selection In our garden, there are four different plants. There is cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and of course, our plant, broccoli. These plants have many similarities, as they are from the same common ancestor. In fact, these plants share 99% of their DNA. Despite their many similarities, they have some obvious differences my team and I observed. We found that the part of the plant with the most variation is the shape of the leaves. Each type of plant had leaves with different shapes than the rest. The broccoli had dark, cool-green, boat-shaped leaves. The cauliflower had leaves with ruffle-like edges but was flatter than the broccoli and cabbage leaves. This variation had leaves that caved towards the center vein. The kale leaves were even more abnormal looking, and they were ruffed like the cauliflower. However, the sides were not straight. The edge of the leave curved in and out like a rounded spike. The cabbage leaves were the most simple, but also the most dif...

Since the beginning of the school year, my teammates and I have closely observed our own Brassica Oleracea, or broccoli. We’ve even observed other groups’ individual Brassica Oleracea plants including kale, cauliflower, cabbage, and of course, broccoli. Many people think of these vegetables as different vegetables entirely due to their relatively small differentiations in size and color. However, they actually share more than 99% of their DNA with each other. The most variation (greatest number of different forms) between the plants lies in the leaves. They are all different shapes and sizes. Some were large and flimsy, while others were small and stiff. Some were round, some were ridged; the leaves definitely varied in shape. Not only did the shape of the leaves vary, but so did the size. The size demonstrated the greatest range of variation as the average length of the leaves ranged from 12cm to nearly 20cm. My group members and I measured different leaves and above are the result...