Post #9

I am observing the height of each of the plants because that feature varies the most out of the other features and has the greatest range.  The leaves on all the plants are generally the same size along with the color of the stems and leaves but the stem length has extremes.  The shortest of the Brassica oleracea is the cabbage with a height of 10 inches while the tallest of the species is the broccoli at 42 inches.  That's a difference of 32 inches.  The ones in the middle include the kohlrabi at 9 in and the collards and 7 in.

There is a great variety in the types in the Brassica oleracea  because the genes of the plants have changed due to the change they have experienced in their environment. The height of the plants could have also been selectively breed to have the best color and growth rate so farmers make the most money.  This happens all the time and it is called artificial selection with most foods and sometimes animals.  When the plants are breed together they pass down certain traits that the offspring will pick up and have those to pass on.  In the wild there is decent with modification and that involves plants passing down certain genes through out generations of plants and the genes slowly shift one way.  Also there are freak events in our genes that can create a harmful or helpful or passive mutation that can affect a species.

The most similar feature in the garden between is the color of the leaves.  Most of the leaves are a dark sage green while the outcasts include the cabbage and kale.  The cabbages leaves are purple and the kale has a darker green than the others.  This is because this shade of green is dark enough to absorb more sun and light enough to not burn when exposed to bright sun.

Plant breeders would breed together specific plants together.  They would pick the plants with the perfect leaves so those features pass on to the offspring giving them that characteristic.  THey would do this over and over to get the perfect color of leaves.