Editing Gregor Mendel (section)

=== Other experiments ===
Mendel also experimented with [[hawkweed]] (''Hieracium'').<ref name="Nogler2006">{{cite journal|last1=Nogler|first1=GA|title=The lesser-known Mendel: his experiments on Hieracium.|journal=Genetics|date=2006|volume=172|issue=1|pages=1–6|doi=10.1093/genetics/172.1.1|pmid=16443600|pmc=1456139}}</ref> He published a report on his work with hawkweed,<ref name="Mendel1869">{{cite journal|last1=Mendel|first1=Gregor|title=Ueber einige aus künstlicher Befruchtung gewonnenen Hieracium-Bastarde. (On Hieracium hybrids obtained by artificial fertilisation)|journal=Verh. Naturf. Ver. Brünn|date=1869|volume=8 (Abhandlungen)|pages=26–31}}</ref> a group of plants of great interest to scientists at the time because of their diversity. However, the results of Mendel's inheritance study in hawkweeds were unlike those for peas; the first generation was very variable, and many of their offspring were identical to the maternal parent. In his correspondence with [[Carl Nägeli]] he discussed his results but was unable to explain them.<ref name="Nogler2006" /> It was not appreciated until the end of the nineteenth century that many hawkweed species were [[apomictic]], producing most of their seeds through an asexual process.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Koltunow|first1=A. M. G.|last2=Johnson|first2=S. D.|last3=Okada|first3=T.|date=2011|title=Apomixis in hawkweed: Mendel's experimental nemesis|journal=Journal of Experimental Botany|volume=62|issue=5|pages=1699–1707|doi=10.1093/jxb/err011|pmid=21335438|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Mendel appears to have kept animals at the monastery, breeding bees in custom-designed [[bee hive]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mendel-museum.com/eng/1online/room3.htm|title=The Enigma of Generation and the Rise of the Cell|publisher=The Masaryk University Mendel Museum|access-date=20 January 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021181104/http://www.mendel-museum.com/eng/1online/room3.htm|archive-date=21 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vecerek |first=O. |date=1965 |title=Johann Gregor Mendel as a Beekeeper |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0005772X.1965.11095345 |journal=Bee World|volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=86–96 |doi=10.1080/0005772X.1965.11095345 |issn=0005-772X}}</ref>  None of his results on bees survived, except for a passing mention in the reports of the Moravian Apiculture Society.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Orel|first1=Vítězslav|last2=Rozman |first2=Josef|last3=Veselý|first3=Vladimír|title=Mendel as a Beekeeper|date=1965|publisher=Moravian Museum|pages=12–14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S9pCAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> All that is known definitely is that he used Cyprian and Carniolan bees,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Demerec|first1=M.|title=Advances in Genetics|date=1956|publisher=Academic Press|location=New York|page=110|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UuEVFGcJuw4C}}</ref> which were particularly aggressive, to the annoyance of other monks and visitors of the monastery, such that he was asked to get rid of them.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Roberts|first1=Michael|last2=Ingram|first2=Neil|title=Biology|date=2001|publisher=Nelson Thornes|location=Cheltenham|isbn=978-0-7487-6238-5|page=277|edition=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=juiDySqWVYkC}}</ref> Mendel, on the other hand, was fond of his bees and referred to them as "my dearest little animals".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Matalova|first1=A|last2=Kabelka|first2=A|title=The beehouse of Gregor Mendel|journal=Casopis Moravskeho Musea. Acta Musei Moraviae – Vedy Prirodni. Car Morav Mus Acta Mus Vedy Prir|date=1982|volume=57|pages=207–12|url=http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=IND84032981&DB=local&CNT=25&Search_Code=GKEY&STARTDB=AGRIDB}}</ref>

After his death, Mendel's colleagues remembered that he bred mice, crossing varieties of different size, although Mendel has left no record of any such work.  A persistent myth has developed that Mendel turned his attention to plants only after Napp declared it unseemly for a celibate priest to closely observe rodent sex.  In a 2022 biography, Daniel Fairbanks argued that Napp could hardly have given such a pronouncement, as Napp personally oversaw sheep breeding on the monastery's extensive agricultural estate.<ref>{{cite book|first=Daniel&nbsp;J.|last=Fairbanks|author-link=Daniel Justin Fairbanks|at=Ch.&nbsp;4|title=Gregor Mendel|publisher=Promethean Books|location=Guilford, CT|year=2022|lccn=2021054684|isbn=9781633888395}}</ref> 

Mendel also studied [[astronomy]] and [[meteorology]],<ref name= MENDELMUSEUM /> founding the 'Austrian Meteorological Society' in 1865.<ref name=Mathofinheritance>{{Cite journal|title=The Mathematics of Inheritance |volume=132 |issue=3348 |pages=1012 |publisher=The Masaryk University Mendel Museum |journal=Online Museum Exhibition |bibcode=1933Natur.132.1012F |last1=Fisher |first1=R. A. |year=1933 |doi=10.1038/1321012a0|doi-access=free }}</ref> The majority of his published works were related to meteorology.<ref name=Mathofinheritance />

He also described novel plant [[species]], and these are denoted with the [[List of botanists by author abbreviation|botanical author abbreviation]] "Mendel".<ref>{{cite web|title=Index of Botanists: Mendel, Gregor Johann|url=http://kiki.huh.harvard.edu/databases/botanist_search.php?mode=details&id=68141|website=HUH – Databases – Botanist Search|publisher=Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries|access-date=29 January 2018}}</ref>