Propagation of Plants from Specialized Structures

Most plants reproduce from seed, but some — especially those that produce specialized stems, roots and leaves — grow or multiply from their own parts. Potato tubers or rooted runners generated by strawberry plants are just a few examples. Chock full of photos and other materials that clearly label and identify the relevant vegetative parts, this 12-page publication provides all the basic information you need to grow plants in these less conventional ways. Plant part types explored include bulbs (including onion and garlic), corms and cormels (flowering stem bases), tubers, rhizomes (ginger), foliar embryos (plantlets) and bulbils (vegetative buds, as in agave). Growing plants from parts is often easy and well worth the effort, so give it a try by consulting this peer-reviewed bulletin from 2010.