The green pea’s connection to Science

How is it that you resemble your parents, but don’t look exactly like them? Why do you have curly hair like your mother, but brown eyes like your father? Why are you tall like your dad, but your complexion matches your mum? For a long time, questions like these remained a mystery. Ultimately, an answer emerged from the scientific observation of one of the first known vegetables in history: peas!

In ancient times

Humans have known of peas for thousands of years. In fact, peas were among the earliest plants grown in prehistoric farms, alongside wheat and barley. They are nutritious — packed with protein and fibre — and can be dried and stored for a long time. They are also extremely useful: their roots fix nitrogen to the soil and make it fertile.

Peas were among the earliest plants grown in prehistoric farms, alongside wheat and barley.
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With the spread of agriculture, peas made their way into different parts of the world and became a staple food. But, for most of history, they weren’t consumed as the sweet green orbs you might be imagining. Instead, they were harvested when fully ripe and needed a fair amount of soaking and cooking. However, their fortune changed dramatically in the 17th century.

French cuisine in the court of King Louis XIV popularised the use of tender green vegetables and sweet green peas, plucked unripe, which became a rage. At a time when refrigeration was unheard of, being able to serve fresh young peas came to be associated with prestige; nobility competed over this!

A close study

In the 19th century, the story of peas turned sharply in a new direction: science. It began in the mind of Gregor Mendel, a monk at the St Thomas’ Abbey in modern-day Czech Republic, who wanted to study inheritance or how different traits are passed on from one generation of living things to the next. So, he chose a patch of 28,000 plants growing in his monastery, almost all of which were peas, and began studying and performing experiments on them.

Mendel’s study of patterns of the pea plants showed that traits are inherited in predictable ways, rather than blended at random. 
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Mendel was looking at seven different traits: height, pod shape and colour, seed shape and colour, flower position and colour. Between 1856 and 1863, he meticulously noted how these traits were passed down through different generations of the plants. In the end, he uncovered patterns that showed that traits are inherited in predictable ways, rather than blended at random. So accurate were his findings that they were replicated many times and stand to this day.

From prehistoric hearths to monastery gardens and modern science, the pea’s long journey reminds us that even the smallest seeds can carry stories that change the way we view the world.