Question

What is vegetative reproduction? Describe the Natural vegetative propagation.

Answer 1

Vegetative reproduction is the process of formation of new plants from detached Vegeta parts or propagules of the parent plant. It is of two types: Natural and Artificial vegetative propagation.

Natural Vegetative Propagation:

In this type of propagation, a fragment of the mother plant functions as a propagule to form an independent plant under suitable conditions. The various modes of natural vegetative propagation are-

1. Roots:

Taproot branches can develop adventitious buds and form new plants in guava, popular and Dalbergia. Fleshy adventitious roots also take part in vegetative propagation as in sweet potato, Dahlia and Asparagus.

2. Underground stems:

•Buds present inside the bulbs sprout to form new plants in onion, garlic and Narcissus.

•Corms bear buds for the growth of daughter plants e.g. Crocus, Colocasia, Freesia.

•Tubers are modified underground stem branches having several buds. Each eye of potato Tuber is a bud which grows into a new potato plant when planted with a portion of the swollen tuber.

3. Subaerial stems:

Runners, stolons and offset are meant for forming new crowns at their tips as well as in nodes in the case of first two. The breaking of these horizontal stems convert the different crowns into independent plants e.g. Eichhornia, Pistia(offsets), grass(runners) and strawberry(stolons).

•Aerial shoots - Segments of Opuntia and other cacti produce new plants after falling on the ground.

•Leaves- Injured leaves of Begonia develop new plants when coming in contact with the soil while in case of Bryophyllum and Kalanchoe leaves do so and form buds present in its marginal notches.

•Bulbils- These are fleshy buds produced in the axil of foliage leaves in place of axillary buds. They grow to form new plants when shed and fall on the ground e.g. Oxalis and Allium sativum.