Gregor Mendel published his findings on pea plants in 1866.
His paper, Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden (Experiments on Plant Hybridization), appeared in the proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brünn. Mendel had presented the work at meetings in Brno in February and March 1865, so 1865 is sometimes confused with the publication year.
The paper described experiments conducted mainly between 1856 and 1863 in the monastery garden of St. Thomas’s Abbey. By crossing carefully selected pea varieties, Mendel showed that inherited characteristics behaved as distinct units rather than simply blending together. His observations led to principles now associated with dominance, segregation, and independent assortment.
The work attracted little attention at first and was largely overlooked for decades. Its importance became clear around 1900, when other scientists independently reproduced or rediscovered Mendel’s results. Thus, 1865 marks the presentations, while 1866 is the correct publication year.