propagation of plants definition of propagation of plants in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

propagation of plants is effected in nature chiefly sexually by the seed seed, fertilized and ripened ovule, consisting of the plant embryo, varying amounts of stored food material, and a protective outer seed coat. Seeds are frequently confused with the fruit enclosing them in flowering plants as in the grains and nuts.
..... Click the link for more information. and the spore spore, term applied both to a resistant or resting stage occurring among various unicellular organisms (especially bacteria) and to an asexual reproductive cell produced by many unicellular plants and animals and by all plants that undergo an alternation of
..... Click the link for more information. , less often by rhizomes and other methods (see reproduction reproduction, capacity of all living systems to give rise to new systems similar to themselves. The term reproduction may refer to this power of self-duplication of a single cell or a multicellular animal or plant organism.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Vegetative means include cutting cutting, in horticulture, part of a plant stem, leaf, or root cut off and used for producing a new plant. It is a convenient and inexpensive method of propagation, not possible for all plants but used generally for grapes; chrysanthemums; verbenas (stem cuttings);
..... Click the link for more information. , layering layering, horticultural practice of propagating a plant by rooting a branch before severing it from the mother plant. Typically the branch is bent and a section that has been slit or broken on the underside is covered with soil and held in place by means of stakes or
..... Click the link for more information. , grafting grafting, horticultural practice of uniting parts of two plants so that they grow as one. The scion, or cion, the part grafted onto the stock or rooted part, may be a single bud, as in budding , or a cutting that has several buds.
..... Click the link for more information. , tissue culture, and division of the roots (see perennial perennial, any plant that under natural conditions lives for several to many growing seasons, as contrasted to an annual or a biennial. Botanically, the term perennial
..... Click the link for more information. ) and of the tubers (see potato potato or white potato, common name for a perennial plant (Solanum tuberosum) of the family Solanaceae ( nightshade family) and for its swollen underground stem, a tuber, which is one of the most widely used vegetables in Western
..... Click the link for more information. ). Most farm and garden crops are propagated by seed, but some plants will not breed true from seed and must be propagated by various vegetative methods, depending on the type of plant.

Bibliography

See M. A. Dirr and C. W. Heuser, The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation (1987); S. Bittman, Seeds (1989); H. T. Hartmann and D. E. Kester, Plant Propagation (5th ed. 1990).