Week 2 - Asexual reproduction in plants

Natural asexual reproduction in plants.

There are lots of different ways that plants can reproduce asexually. Here are just a few natural ways that plants reproduce asexually. You may have helped your parents to plant bulbs in the Spring or Autumn. These are grown by the plant under the ground and break off to produce new plants. The lifecycle of the tulip in the diagram above shows how bulbs develop into plants and reproduce.

Some plants like strawberries grow runners along the surface of the soil. When these touch the ground they begin to grow roots and become a new plant. Ivy also spreads like this. 

Other plants like potatoes produce tubers which are swollen parts of their roots. These tubers will grow into new plants. Cacti produce small buds of mini cacti on the main parent plant. If one gets knocked off, it will fall to the ground and grow into a new plant.

Artificial asexual reproduction in plants.

We can also produce new plants using artificial asexual production. We can take cuttings of leaves, stems or roots of plants and plant them so that they will grow into new plants. In class we are going to try to take some geranium cuttings to grow into new plants for the balcony planters next summer. 

Below are the instructions for taking cuttings from a geranium plant. If you have one at home, you could have a go at propagating it. This is the word we use to describe growing a new plant by taking a cutting.