Question

Give the significance of vegetative propagation.

Answer 1

Hint: Vegetative propagation means when the units of plants which are known as vegetative propagules such as rhizome, bulb, sucker, tuber and offset can give rise to a new plant. It is a type of asexual reproduction.

Complete Answer:
- The plants which reproduce by vegetative propagation are Kalanchoe pinnata, Bryophyllum daigremontianum, etc. Vegetative propagation takes less time. Since it is a type of asexual reproduction, it preserves the genetic material and the characteristics of parent plant, results into generation of clone of parent plant.
- The advantage of passing the same genetic information to offspring is the passing of favourable traits, and taste to the fellow plants. This is the method which is not expensive, and easy to do.
- This process takes less time and the plants reach a mature phase faster. As the reproductive parts are the vegetative propagules such as rhizomes, sucker etc, no seed production takes place.
- It produces the flowers with much better quality. It also offers research advantages and can be studied easily. As it can be bred easily and thus gene bank can be made easily in this case, cloning can be done.
- All the above mentioned significance states that it is also commercially beneficial for farmers, researchers etc.

Note: Reproduction is the process of production of fertile and viable offspring of the same species. There are two types of reproduction, i) Asexual reproduction and ii) Sexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction is simple and involves only one parent, while sexula reproduction is complex and requires two parents, one male and another female.