Plant Propagation: Sexual and Asexual Methods

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the definitions, advantages, disadvantages, and specific methods of sexual and asexual plant propagation.

Plant Propagation

The controlled perpetuation of plants aimed at multiplying and preserving the essential characteristics of the mother plant.

Sexual Propagation

The multiplication of plants by seed, involving the fusion of male and female gametes via meiosis and fertilization.

Chance Seedling

A novel plant variant arising from the genetic diversity produced exclusively through seed (sexual) propagation.

Polyembryony

The occurrence of multiple embryos within a single seed, which can be commercially exploited in fruit crops such as mango, citrus, and jamun.

Psorosis

A seed-transmitted citrus virus that illustrates how certain viral pathogens can spread through sexual propagation.

Asexual (Vegetative) Propagation

The method of multiplying plants from non-zygotic somatic tissue through mitosis, producing true-to-type daughter plants.

Noble Plants

Specially constructed composite plants created by grafting multiple varieties onto a single individual plant.

Tristeza Virus (Quick Decline)

A viral disease affecting citrus that is transmitted through infected bud wood during vegetative propagation.

Stem Cuttings

Vegetative propagation units categorized by shoot maturity into hardwood (grape, fig, pomegranate, rose), semi-hardwood (guava, jackfruit, aonla), softwood (apple, peach, guava), and herbaceous (Coleus, geranium, chrysanthemum).

Leaf Bud Cuttings

A vegetative cutting composed of a leaf blade, petiole, and a short piece of stem containing an axillary bud, utilized in lemon and tea.

Air Layering (Gootee or Marcotage)

A layering method where root formation is stimulated on an aerial branch while still attached to the mother plant, commonly practiced on litchi, guava, and crotons.

Mound Layering (Stooling)

A ground layering technique in which shoots are cut back and mounded with soil at their bases to stimulate adventitious rooting, commonly used in guava, apple, and pear.

Trench Layering

A ground layering procedure based on etiolation, wherein shoots are placed in a trench to form roots, as exemplified in cherry.

Bridge Grafting

A restorative grafting technique utilized to repair and reconnect damaged trunk wood and vascular tissue in apple and pear trees.

Veneer Grafting

A specific grafting technique widely utilized for the multiplication of mango in North India.

Epicotyl Grafting

A specialized grafting method carried out on germinating seedlings, commercially used in mango and cashewnut.

Softwood Grafting

A grafting method performed on succulent, tender new shoot growth, utilized in South India for mango, cashewnut, and tamarind.

Inarching

An approach grafting method where the scion remains attached to its parent root system until union is complete, used in jackfruit, sapota, and loquat.

T-Budding (Shield Budding)

A budding procedure where a single bud on a shield of bark is inserted under the bark flaps of a T-shaped slit, applied in rose, ber, and mandarin.

Patch Budding

A budding technique where a rectangular patch of bark containing a bud is transferred to a matching exposed area on the stock, used in aonla, jamun, bael, and walnut.

Tuberous Roots

Underground storage organs formed through the massive enlargement of secondary roots, found in sweet potato and dahlia.

Stolons

Modified horizontal aboveground stems that take root and form new plants along their length, characteristic of Bermuda grass and mint.

Runners

Specialized prostrate stems that produce daughter plantlets at nodes, used for propagating strawberry, geranium, Boston fern, Dendrobium, and Chlorophytum.

Suckers

Secondary vegetative shoots arising from the underground root system or crown, used to propagate raspberry, blackberry, datepalm, and pineapple.

Offsets (Offshoots)

Short, thick lateral shoots or plantlets that develop near the base of the main stem, used to propagate datepalm, pineapple, and banana.