Vegetative Reproduction in Angiosperm

It is a process in which a part of the plant body gets detached and develops
in to a new independent plant.

In lower plants it occurs through binary fission, budding, fragmentation,

gemmae, resting buds, soredia (in lichens) etc.

In higher plants, any part of the body maybe capable of vegetative

propagation. Many plants produce modified stems, roots, and leaves,
specially for natural vegetative propagation. At the same time, man too has
developed various methods of artificial vegetative propagation for many
useful plants.

The methods of vegetative propagation may be classified into the

following two types:
(1) Natural vegetative propagation

(2) Artificial vegetative propagation

1. Natural Vegetative Reproduction:

Different plant parts are variously modified for vegetative propagation. The
common structures that take part in vegetative propagation are root, stem,
leaves and buds.

These are briefly described below:

(i) Vegetative Propagation by Roots:
The ordinary roots in many plants, such as Dalbergia sisso, Populus, Guava,
Murraya,Albizia lebbek develop adventitious buds which grow to form new
plants. Root tubers with adventitious buds occur in sweet potato (Fig. 10.1),
Tapioca, Yam, Dahlia (Fig. 10.2) and Asparagus.
When placed in the soil, the buds present on the tuberous roots grow in to
leafy shoots called slips. Slips develop adventitious roots at their base. Slips
are detached and planted to form new plants. Many garden plants, such as
Phlox and Dahlia, are propagated from roots which have been separated
from the parent plant and cut into pieces.

(ii) Vegetative Propagation by Stems:

This is one of the most common and prevalent methods of vegetative
propagation. Different plant parts, such as bulbs, runners, rhizomes, corms,
tubers, offset etc. help the plant to multiply under favourable conditions.
(a) Bulb. It is a modified shoot that has a very short stem and apical and
axillary buds. Some of these grow to form shoots, e.g., Allium (onion),
Allium sativum (garlic) (Fig. 10.3 & 10.4), Tulip (Tulipa), Jonquil
(Narcisus) etc.

(b) Runners:
These are creeping stems which produce roots at nodes. Runners break at
places and each piece develops into an independent plant, e.g., Cynodon
(doob grass), Oxalis etc. (Fig. 10.5 & 10.6).

(c) Rhizomes:
These are underground, horizontally growing stems. They have prominent
nodes, internodes and axillary buds. Aerial branches sprout from the
axillary buds which get separated from the rhizome and form new plants,
e.g. Zinger

(d) Corm:
It is, in fact, a condensed rhizome that grows in vertical direction. The
axillary buds, present in the axil of scale leaves, produce daughter corms
which later on form new independent plants, e.g., Crocus (Saffron),
Colocasia (Taro) Arisaema etc. (Figs. 10.8 & 10.9).

(e) Tuber:
It is a modification of underground stem. The “eyes” or buds present on the
tuber form new independent plants. Potato (Solarium tuberosum) is the
most common example (Figs. 10.10 & 10.11).

(J) Offset:
It looks like a modification of runner, in being more or less thickened,
prostrate branch with a tuft of leaves at the apex, e.g., Pistia (water lettuce),
Eichornia (water hyacinth). They develop from the base of an old shoot or
crown and after growing horizontally for some distance give rise to new
crowns. They may break and form many independent plants (Fig. 10.12).

(g) Aerial Shoots:

A stem segment of Opuntia and other cacti develops into a new plant after
falling on the soil (Fig. 10.13). A similar segment of sugarcane with at least
one node is used in agriculture to produce new plant.
(iii) Vegetative Propagation by Leaves:
Leaves of a number of plants possess adventitious buds for vegetative
propagation, e.g., leaf tips of walking fern (Adiantum caudatum), marginal
notches in Kalanchoe and Bryophyllum (Fig. 10.14). In Bryophyllum, the
marginal buds sprout while the leaf is attached to plant. In some other
plants, the buds develop only when the leaf is injured or detached and fall
on the moist soil, e.g., Begonia, Saintpaulia, and Streptocarpus.

(iv) Vegetative Propagation by Bulbils:

They are fleshy buds which develop into new plants after falling on the soil,
e.g. Agave, Oxalis, Pineapple (Ananas camosus), Dioscorea, Lily,
Chlorophyturn etc. Some of them are modified floral buds, e.g., Agave. In
Dioscorea, they develop in the axils of leaves while in Oxalis they occur
above the base of fleshy root. (Fig. 10.15).

In some plants, where vegetative reproduction by natural means

is difficult to occur, special techniques can be used. We know that
plant cells are more totipotent than animal cells. So they can be
forced to reproduce vegetatively. Thus all the techniques or
methods which are carried out by human beings to produce plants
vegetatively, are called artificial methods, these include stem
cuttings, layering, root cuttings, grafting, gootee & micro-
propagation (by tissue culture method)

1. Cutting:
(a) It is a simple method, in which a suitable part of stem or root
(about 20 to 30 cm long) is cut and it is planted in the soil, along
with some nutrients. This cut part soon develops new roots and
develops into a new plant.

(b) Root cutting are commonly used in plants like lemon,

tamarind, Blackberry and raspberry etc. Stem cuttings are very
common in plants like Rose, Croton, Sugarcane, Tapioca, China
rose, Bougainvillea, Lemon, Coffee and Grape etc.

(c) Leaf cutting also used to produce new offspring, in plants like
Sansevieria.