In the process of evolution, nature has come up with the following methods of plant reproduction: seed and vegetative.
The latter suggests the possibility of obtaining a new individual from some part of the plant. It's kind of like cloning. The plant reproduces its exact copy. This has significant advantages - usually species that reproduce in this way are unpretentious, resistant to environmental changes, and adapt well to them. But there are certain disadvantages - they cannot occupy vast territories, since there is no mechanism for moving the daughter individual over long distances, it is tied to the mother plant.
Seed (there are male and female flowers) reproduction appeared later, it gave impetus to the settlement of vegetation on the surface of the Earth. Yes, this reproduction does not have stable results, it depends very much on the conditions in which the seeds fall. But plants have found a way to solve this problem. They produce many times more seeds than necessary, making allowance for the fact that out of 60%, the plants simply will not be able to develop. So the odds are evened out. It happens that some representatives of the flora can use different types of plant propagation. For example, strawberries are mostlyreproduces by shoots, but few people know that it also produces seeds.
Methods of plant propagation were taken as a basis by people when they realized that it was possible to create new varieties with improved qualities. Thus was born the science of selection. Of course, it is quite difficult to get a new variety of a plant that propagates by seeds. This is a long and painstaking work. Just imagine: a breeder has to pick off male flowers on some plants in order to then pollinate them with flowers of others, moreover, to do this over large areas. Such patience can only be envied. It is easier with cross-pollinated ones - they are simply planted side by side and the necessary specimens are selected. This, of course, is easier, but practice shows that the results of such a selection are rather unstable.
But the methods of vegetative propagation of plants give more sustainable results. These include breeding with shoots, cuttings, rhizomes,
tubers and bulbs. These methods of plant propagation are widely used by gardeners who are engaged in berry, flower and fruit crops. Moreover, this procedure is simple and gives 80-85% of a successful result. For example, many fruit trees propagate by root shoots. In addition, grafting of cuttings of the same variety on growing trees or established seedlings is often used. Raspberries propagate by root shoots. You can get a new currant bush by sprinkling the lower branches with earth. And strawberries with cosmic speed gives a mustache. If you count how manyget from one bush, you get 200 pieces. Of course, as practice shows, not all of these plants will produce a stable harvest, so gardeners do not allow strawberries to multiply at such a pace. But the scale is impressive.
Using all methods of plant reproduction, man got into his own hands the opportunity to regulate the number of certain species, which allows solving the problem of food for a steadily growing humanity.
