Snow pea relationship—and are therefore a useful companion plant, especially useful to grow intercropped with green, leafy vegetables that benefit from high nitrogen content in their soil. Snow peas can be grown in open fields during cool seasons and can thus be cultivated during winter and spring seasons. Storage of the pea with films of polymethylpentene at a temperature of 5 °C and a concentration of oxygen and carbon dioxide of 5 kPa augments the shelf life, internal and external characteristics of the plant. Austrian scientist and monk Gregor Mendel used peas which he called "Pisum saccharatum" in his famous experiments demonstrating
Gregor Mendel the Moravian-Silesian border, Austrian Empire (now a part of the Czech Republic). He was the son of Anton and Rosine (Schwirtlich) Mendel and had one older sister, Veronika, and one younger, Theresia. They lived and worked on a farm which had been owned by the Mendel family for at least 130 years (the house where Mendel was born is now a museum devoted to Mendel). During his childhood, Mendel worked as a gardener and studied beekeeping. As a young man, he attended gymnasium in Opava (called "Troppau" in German). He had to take four months off during his gymnasium studies