graft

graft, in surgery: see transplantation, medical.

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graft

Some methods of grafting: (1) simple splice graft, showing cut surfaces of stock and scion and the …

(credit: © Merriam-Webster Inc.)

In horticulture, the act of placing a portion of one plant (called a bud or scion) into or on a stem, root, or branch of another (called the stock) in such a way that a union forms and the partners continue to grow. Grafting is used for various purposes: to repair injured trees, produce dwarf trees and shrubs, strengthen plants' resistance to certain diseases, retain varietal characteristics, adapt varieties to adverse soil or climatic conditions, ensure pollination, produce multifruited or multiflowered plants, and propagate certain species (such as hybrid roses) that can be propagated in no other way. In theory, any two plants that are closely related botanically and that have a continuous cambium can be grafted. Grafts between species of the same genus are often successful and between genera occasionally so, but grafts between families are nearly always failures.

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graft

1. Horticulture

a. a piece of plant tissue (the scion), normally a stem, that is made to unite with an established plant (the stock), which supports and nourishes it

b. the plant resulting from the union of scion and stock

c. the point of union between the scion and the stock

2. Surgery a piece of tissue or an organ transplanted from a donor or from the patient's own body to an area of the body in need of the tissue

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graft [graft]

(biology)

To unite to form a graft.

A piece of tissue transplanted from one individual to another or to a different place on the same individual.

An individual resulting from the grafting of parts.

(botany)

To unite a scion to an understock in such manner that the two grow together and continue development as a single plant without change in scion or stock.