How did Carolus Linnaeus’s studies of plant hybridization influence later biology?

Carolus Linnaeus’s studies of plant hybridization were significant for their role in shaping the experimental tradition in biology. Specifically, his investigations influenced the work of Austrian botanist Gregor Mendel, whose later experiments with pea plants became foundational to the field of genetics.1

Additionally, Linnaeus attempted to use hybridization to explain the existence of natural divisions and hierarchies within the biological world, though he struggled to provide a fully satisfying mechanism for these relationships. The question of how organisms fall into natural hierarchies remained a central challenge in biology until Charles Darwin later provided an explanation based on common descent in his work On the Origin of Species.2