How do Mendel’s experiments show that (a) traits may be dominant or recessive?

How do Mendel’s experiments show that
(a) traits may be dominant or recessive?
(b) inheritance of two traits is independent of each other?

(a) Mendel took pea plants having different characteristics, like a tall plant and a dwarf
plant. The first generation (F1 progeny) formed are all tall. There were no half way characteristics in the first generation i.e., there were no “medium height” plants. It means that only one of the parental traits, was seen and not the other. Here, the trait of tallness is dominant but dwarfness is recessive characteristics.

(b) Mendel took pea plants with two different characteristics like tall plant with round seeds and a dwarf plant with wrinkled seeds.

  1. F1 progeny are all tall and have round seeds. Tallness and round seeds are dominant traits.
  2. In F2 progeny some are tall plants with round seeds and some were short plants with wrinkled seeds.
  3. But some F2 progeny shows new mixtures some tall having wrinkled seeds, while other dwarf having round seeds.