Sexual vs. Vegetative
Propagation
The 2 Main Types of Propagation
• Sexual propagation is usually the result of the
pollination of a flower where genetic information from
the male (pollen) is brought together with the genetic
information of the female (ovule) and the resulting
seed is formed. The seed now has half of the genetic
information of both parents.
• Vegetative propagation is the process of using parts of
the original plant such as leaves, stems or roots or
pieces of the leaf, stem and root and growing a whole
plant from them or using the plants own specialized
vegetative structures to make new plants. The resulting
offspring from process are genetically identical to the
parent plant (Clones).
Haploid and Diploid
The term Haploid and Diploid refer to the number
of sets of chromosomes contained in a particular
life stage.
Most animals once born have diploid (2n or two
sets) of chromosomes in all of their cells and it is
the sex cells (the sperm and the egg) that have
one set.
In a life cycle when the diploid sets are split
forming 2 haploid sets that process is called
meiosis.
When to haploid sets are brought together to
form one diploid set that process is mitosis and is
often referred to as fertilization
Sexual Propagation - Pollination
Cross pollination means the pollen
from one flower pollinated the ovary of
another flower. This is common in
apples, grapes, raspberries,
blackberries, daffodils, tulips, lavender
Self-Pollination is when the pollen of a flower
pollinates/fertilized the ovary of that same flower.
This is common in legumes such as peas, peanuts,
orchids, sunflowers, barley, oats, and rice.
Preventing Cross Pollination
Tomato
plants
covered to
prevent cross
pollination
Sunflowers covered to
prevent cross
pollination
Netting over Mandarin oranges to prevent cross pollination
Pollination/ Fertilization
Pollen (N)
Pollen tube
Ovary
Ovules (N)
The pollen once landing on
the stigma sends down a
pollen tube into the pistil
toward the ovary of the
flower in search of an
available ovule. Upon
reaching the ovary it enters
and deposits the 2 sperm
cells into an ovule.
The “Work” of the Pollen Grain
Tube cell nucleus
4
The central cell becomes the endosperm and the Egg becomes the embryo
The Formation of Seed(2N) is the
result of pollination /fertilization
and has the combined genetics of
both of the parents
Dominant and Recessive Characteristics
The genetics of sexual propagation were first understood with the discovery of
Mendel’s pea experiments where he learned about dominant and recessive
genetic characteristics of different alleles in the chromosomes of the parents.
Mendel was the first to discover that the dominant trait would show pure in
the first generation (F1) if those seeds were sown the next generation (F2)
would have a 3:1 ratio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mehz7tCx
jSE
Incomplete Dominance
A snapdragon flower that
is pink as a result of crosspollination between a red
flower and a white flower
when neither the white or
the red alleles are
dominant.
A child with wavy hair as a
result of one parent's curly
hair and the other's straight
A carnation that is pink
that is a result of crosspollination between a red
carnation and a white
Vegetative Propagation
• Vegetative propagation has an outcome of
producing identical clones of the parent plant
through the various methods such as hard and
softwood cuttings, leaf cuttings and air
layering.
• Vegetative propagation also relies on using the
specialized vegetative structures produced by
many plants to clone themselves.
Cuttings
Tip Cuttings
Leaf cuttings – Whole leaf
Hardwood cuttings
Leaf bud cuttings
Leaf cuttings - Pieces
of leaf
Pothos- leaf bud cuttings
Sanseveria
Specialized Vegetative Structures
Stem Tubers - Potato
Offshoots - Bamboo
Corm
Bulbs – Onion
Root Tuber - Dahlia
Runners – Spider plant
Specialized Vegetative Structures Rhizome
A Rhizome in an
underground stem and is
used for propagation of
things like iris and ginger
Division
Division is usually done with
clumping plants such as
ornamental grasses