Mendel discovered that pure-bred plants did not produce offspring with blended traits.

In general, offspring appear to be a mixture of parental characteristics. However, Mendel found that this is not true for the pea plant traits that he chose to study. Pure-bred pea plants when crossed did not produce offspring with blended traits. For example, one might expect that a cross between pure-bred green-seeded and pure-bred yellow-seeded pea plants to produce offspring with seeds of an intermediate green-yellow color. After all, color blending happens when paint is mixed together. However, Mendel found that this cross produced offspring with only one color yellow. No intermediate blends were seen, and the green color seemed to have disappeared.

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