Vegetative reproduction facts for kids

A bulb of Muscari has made two bulbs underground, each of which produces a flower stem. In this way it reproduces vegetatively

Bryophyllum daigremontianum produces plantlets along the margins of its leaves. When they are mature enough, they drop off and root in any suitable soil beneath

Vegetative reproduction is a kind of asexual reproduction. Many plants do it. By vegetative reproduction plants can cover the ground quickly: ground taken by one plant is difficult for other plants to take. This occurs naturally, and can also be done on purpose by horticulturists.

Vegetative reproduction uses mitosis. This means that the newly created cell is a clone, and identical to the parent cell. Some plants put out new roots underground, have bulbs, or grow new vines and shoots above ground.

By this process, new plants can be grown naturally without any seeds or spores. Therefore, it is widely used especially in agriculture to spread the trees that are of great value to the economy.

Cuttings

In gardening and farming, vegetative reproduction means cutting a tree branch below its center joint, planting it in some other earth, and letting it form new roots. In this way, many kinds of useful plants can be easily reproduced without any seeds, for example: apple, avocado, banana, cacao, hemp, orange/lemon, date, fig, grape, almond, pineapple, potato, strawberry, sugar cane and tea.

Related pages

• Plant reproduction

Images for kids

• 

  Production of new individuals along a leaf margin of the air plant, Kalanchoe pinnata. The small plant in front is about 1 cm tall. The concept of "individual" is stretched by this process.

• 

  Vegetative reproduction from a stem cutting less than a week old. Some species are more conducive to this means of propagation than others.

See also

In Spanish: Esqueje para niños