Vegetative propagation is asexual reproduction in plants in which a new plant grows from a vegetative (non-reproductive) part of the parent, such as a stem, root or leaf, rather than from a seed. The new plant is formed by mitosis, so it is a clone of the parent.Natural examples:
• Runners (stolons): horizontal stems growing over the soil surface, as in strawberries; new plantlets form at nodes and root into the soil.
• Rhizomes: horizontal underground stems, as in couch grass and irises.
• Stem tubers: swollen underground stem tips storing starch, as in potatoes; each eye is a bud that can grow a new shoot.
• Bulbs: short stems with fleshy storage leaves, as in onions and daffodils.
• Suckers: new shoots growing up from the roots, as in elm trees.
Artificial methods include taking cuttings (a stem section is planted and grows roots, often helped by rooting powder containing the plant hormone auxin), grafting, and micropropagation (tissue culture), in which small pieces of tissue are grown on sterile nutrient agar to produce thousands of identical plants.Vegetative propagation works because many plant cells, especially in meristems, can still divide and differentiate into other cell types. Storage organs such as tubers and bulbs also provide food for rapid early growth, so the offspring become established faster than seedlings.Growers use it to reproduce plants with desirable characteristics exactly, but a field of clones has no genetic variation and can be wiped out by a single disease.
• Runners (stolons): horizontal stems growing over the soil surface, as in strawberries; new plantlets form at nodes and root into the soil.
• Rhizomes: horizontal underground stems, as in couch grass and irises.
• Stem tubers: swollen underground stem tips storing starch, as in potatoes; each eye is a bud that can grow a new shoot.
• Bulbs: short stems with fleshy storage leaves, as in onions and daffodils.
• Suckers: new shoots growing up from the roots, as in elm trees.
Artificial methods include taking cuttings (a stem section is planted and grows roots, often helped by rooting powder containing the plant hormone auxin), grafting, and micropropagation (tissue culture), in which small pieces of tissue are grown on sterile nutrient agar to produce thousands of identical plants.Vegetative propagation works because many plant cells, especially in meristems, can still divide and differentiate into other cell types. Storage organs such as tubers and bulbs also provide food for rapid early growth, so the offspring become established faster than seedlings.Growers use it to reproduce plants with desirable characteristics exactly, but a field of clones has no genetic variation and can be wiped out by a single disease.