Natural methods of Vegetative Propagation in Plants

Exercise : Natural methods of Vegetative Propagation in Plants

Aim: To study and identify the types of natural methods of vegetative propagation in plants.

Principle: Natural vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in which vegetative bud grows and develops into a new plant.

Requirements: Fresh / preserved specimens of Zingiber, Chrysanthemum, Bryophullum.

Ask the students to visit the nearest vegetable market and classify the vegetable into root, stem or leaf based on their utility and identify how many of them can be propagated through vegetative methods.

A. Vegetative Propagation by underground stem – Rhizome

Diagnostic Features

•  Ginger is a underground stem which is called as Rhizome.

•  Rhizomes are horizontal and swollen due to the storage of food materials.

•  The terminal buds turn upwards to produce the aerial flowering shoot and the lateral buds gro out to form new rhizomes.

B. Vegetative Propagation by sub-aerial stem – Sucker

Diagnostic Features

·        The suckers of Chrysanthemum are used for propagating plants.

·        Suckers grows horizontally under the soil and then emerge out obliquely from the soil and give rise to a new plant or leafy shoot.

·        The sucker has nodes and internodes. In the nodal region, it bears axillary buds above and adventitious roots below.

C. Vegetative Propagation by epiphyllous buds - Bryophyllum 

Diagnostic Features

·        In Bryophyllum, adventitious buds arise on the leaf margins. These are called epiphyllous buds.

·        When the leaves fall off the epiphyllous buds develop roots into the soil and becomes independent plants.