Kids Research Express

Some plants produce special underground stems such as tubers, bulbs, and corms that enable them to reproduce asexually. Like all stems, these structures have buds, or nodes, from which new stems branch. Tubers are swollen, fleshy stems with several buds called eyes that produce new plants; an example of a tuber is the potato. Bulbs, such as those found in onions, lilies, hyacinths, and tulips, are short, wide, teardrop-shaped underground stems surrounded by scaly leaves. Corms, such as crocuses and gladioli, are similar, but lack the scaly leaves. Both bulbs and corms make clumps of new bulbs or corms, called offsets, which can be divided and buried in the soil to generate new plants. Irises and ferns produce rhizomes, fleshy stems that grow horizontally beneath the soil, with new plants developing from the tip of the rhizome and from each node on the stem. Stolons, specialized stems found in strawberries and many lawn grasses, are similar to rhizomes but are usually thinner and grow ...

Also called micropropagation, tissue culture is the production of plants under sterile laboratory conditions. A variety of tissue culture techniques are used to propagate plants. In one method, growers remove a tiny piece of leaf or stem from a plant and place it in a sterile test tube on a gel-like medium enriched with hormones and nutrients. A yellow-brown mass of cells called callus develops from the piece of plant. Small chunks of the callus are separated, and each piece is placed in a petri dish with a hormone and nutrient mix that stimulates the development of the callus pieces into plants. The young plants are removed from the petri dish and placed in pots with soil, or into the ground, where they grow to maturity. Tissue culture enables researchers and growers to rapidly generate numerous clones year-round in greenhouses. In nature, strawberry plants typically produce their fruits in summer. Commercially grown strawberries, however, are propagated throughout the year by ti...

In agamospermy, also known as apomixis, a seed develops directly from tissues of the ovule rather than from a fertilized egg. Depending on the species, a fruit may or may not be produced. The plants that develop by agamospermy are clones of the mother plant. Agamospermy occurs in nature in species such as dandelions and blackberries, enabling them to spread rapidly since they can bypass pollination and fertilization.

In grafting, a freshly cut section of stem with buds, called a scion, is joined to another plant called the stock. The upper stem of the stock is severed and the scion is joined to the lower stem. The scion is securely attached to the stock, and the tissues of the two plants grow into each other, forming a single plant. The scion produces the stems, leaves, and flowers on the new plant and the stock provides the root system. Grafting combines desirable qualities from one species, such as disease resistance or the ability to grow in waterlogged soils, with desirable qualities of another, such as the ability to produce high quality fruit. Grafting is often used to make fruit trees more vigorous and productive. Bud grafting is a form of grafting in which a single bud cut from a stem is grafted onto the stock. It can be carried out more rapidly than other forms of grafting and is used widely in the nursery industry to propagate hundreds or thousands of plants in a relatively short amo...

For many plant species, a leaf, section of stem, or piece of root cut from a plant and lightly covered in soil, peat moss, or another growth medium develops a new, independent plant by generating the missing parts. Stimulated by hormones called auxins, a partially buried leaf or piece of stem, for example, develops roots on the buried portion, and a piece of root forms stems and leaves above the soil. Cuttings and layering are widely used for perennial plants, plants that grow back from the same roots year after year. Commercially, cuttings are the most important source for perennials, such as new fruit trees; conifers, including pine and spruce; a variety of shrubs, roses and honeysuckle, for example; and many florist blooms. In layering, a new plant develops from a stem that is still attached to the parent plant. In nature, the stem simply arches over and spreads out on the ground. The parts of the stem that are in secure contact with the soil develop the roots, stems, and leaves o...

Asexual propagation is the production of new plants from the leaves, stems, or roots of a single parent plant. Asexual propagation, which does not require pollination or fertilization, is a rapid method of propagation. It ensures that all of the parent’s genetic material survives even if the parent dies, and it creates offspring, known as clones, with the same traits as the parent plant. Asexual propagation is advantageous when plants are well adapted to a particular environment. Several methods of asexual propagation occur in nature. They have been adapted for commercial use for rapid propagation and to obtain plants that are hard to grow from seeds. A. Cuttings and Layering B. Grafting C. Agamospermy D. Tissue Culture E. Propagation from Stems and Roots