Reproduction and Growth
Most of us think of plant reproduction as planting a seed and watching it grow. There are many different ways however that plants are reproduced. Plants also have different growth habits.
- Asexual Propagation
- Sexual Propagation
- Heirloom Seeds
- Open Pollination and Come True
- Cross Pollination or Hybrid Seeds
- Determinate
- Indeterminate
Asexual Propagation
Plants are reproduced using clones of themselves. There are several methods to do this, layering, cuttings, grafting, microproagation (used for large scale production), plus many others.
Many hybrid plants are illegal to reproduce asexually – it is a violation of the breeder’s patent.
Sexual Propagation
Sexual propagation requires a male plant to provide pollen and a female plant to receive the pollen. This takes place inside the flower. Some plants are self-pollinating – they have both male and female parts. Some pollen is spread by wind and some is spread by birds, bees, or other pollinators.
Once a flower has been pollinated it produces seed(s). The seeds can take on many forms. Some are in fruit, some have burrs to catch on animal fur, some have parasols to catch the wind. The plants have adapted to take advantage of different means to transport their seeds to other locations.
Heirloom Seeds
The seeds are open-pollinated and carry their physical traits forward to each subsequent generation. To be considered an heirloom, plants have to have been around for several decades.
Open Pollination and Come True
When you gather seeds from a plant or allow them to self-seed, and the offspring are copies of the parent plant, they are considered to have ‘come true’ as a result of open pollination (not manipulated by man).
Cross Pollination or Hybrid Seeds
Hybrid seeds are created by crossing cultivars (manipulated by man) but their seeds will not ‘come true’ – the resulting offspring will look quite different than the parent. Petunias are a common example. People save seeds or they seed out nearby and the resulting flowers are not the same colour as the previous summer’s.
Determinate
Determinate plants have a definite height and spread
Indeterminate
Indeterminate plants do not stop growing until pinched off or cooler weather affects their growth.
