Evolving Plants - Mustard

Oor

An interactive simulation to explore a mustard plant population evolution through artificial selection The simulation shows a population of plants (roughly based on plants in the mustard family). The life cycle is shown, from germination to growth of leaves, buds, flowers, and seedpods. The seedpods eventually drop their seeds, the old plants whither away, and a new population grows. Users can select which plants the seeds for the new generation will be from. This will model the process of evolution of the population by artificial selection (selective breeding). If users do not make selections, the population will anyway evolve through natural selection. Various events will be simulated in which certain plants will be destroyed, leaving other plants to produce seeds for the next generation. Read more about the processes of natural and artificial selection in this book that inspired the project! http://www.khaydock.com/Books/How%20do%20They%20Evolve.pdf