Don't know if the creators are even familiar with the game, but Mendel really reminds me of Plant Tycoon which I played a while back. Although there's certainly a greater degree of freedom in breeding, maintaining, and keeping plants here. I played this game probably longer than I would like to admit.

This is literally the first I'm hearing of this game.

Around the time I released Mendel, there was a small crop of other plant growing games that were released, but this predates all of that by a lot. Funny how ideas are always coming around again in cycles.