Answers 2024/2025
Propagation - ANSWERSreproduction, or the increase of the number of individual plants
sexual (seed) and asexual (vegetative)
Asexual Propagation - ANSWERSalso called cloning
Many methods; some plants can be propagated by more than one method.
relies on mitosis, leads to uniformity
How is vegetative propagation possible? - ANSWERSTotipotency and cellular ability to dedifferentiate
Totipotency - ANSWERSevery living cell in plant has genetic code needed to reconstitute all plant parts
and functions.
Stem cutting has genetic info to form roots and a root cutting will form new shoots.
Dedifferentiation - ANSWERSsome mature plant cells can return to a meristematic condition and develop
a new growing point to regenerate the missing parts
Methods of asexual propagation - ANSWERScuttings
layering
specialized structures
grafting and budding
tissue culture
Cuttings - ANSWERSstem cuttings
leaf cuttings
, root cuttings
factors in success: plant health, rooting hormones, environment
Stem cuttings general practice - ANSWERScut piece of stem
remove leaves on lower half
stick in rooting medium
warmth, light, and water
rooting takes days to months
4 kinds of stem cuttings - ANSWERSHerbaceous (easiest), softwood (early summer), semi-hardwood
(midsummer), and hardwood (late fall, winter, early spring-- when dormant)
Layering - ANSWERSstem generates new roots- still attached to plant
Natural methods of layering: - ANSWERSrunners/stolons (strawberries/groundcovers)
offsets (pineapple)
suckers (apples),
crown division (many herbaceous perennials)
Runners/Stolons - ANSWERSa horizontal branch from the base of a plant that produces new plants from
buds at its tip or nodes (as in the strawberry) —called also runner
Offsets - ANSWERSa small, virtually complete daughter plant that has been naturally and asexually
produced on the mother plant
plant's roots or stem,
like cacti or succulents