Us & Them - Sexual & Asexual

Task 1: You will encounter the terms listed below in this lesson. Find their meanings

1. Asexual reproduction - Formation of a new individual from the cell of a single parent.
2. Sexual reproduction - Involves the fusing of the gametes from 2 parents to form offspring. Produces offspring that are not genetically identical. A lot of variation is possible.
3. Clones - Every new organism produced is genetically identical to the parent.
4. Stolons or runners - Horizontal above-ground stems from which roots can grow to start off a new plant, Eg strawberry, spider plants.
5. Rhizomes - An underground runner that gives rise to new plants eg ginger, iris, lilies.
6. Bulbs - Underground stems that divide by mitosis allowing many new plants to form new bulbs eg onion, garlic.
7. Tubers - Underground storage stem from which new plants can grow after a dormant season eg dahlia, potato.
8. Corm - A bulb-like but solid, fleshy underground stem eg dahlia, taro, crocus.
9. Budding - Offspring develop as a growth on the body of the parent. Eg jellyfishes, echinoderms, tapeworms. In corals the buds remain attached to the parent resulting in the formation of colonies.
10. Fragmentation - Parts of a plant break off and grow into a new plant. May include vegetative propagation in which part of the plant now specialised for reproduction breaks off and grows into a new plant.
11. Regeneration - If a piece of parent is detached, it can grow and develop into a completely new individual eg starfish.
12. Artificial propagation - Artificial reproduction/propagation is the creation of new life by other than natural means available to an organism. Examples include artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, cloning and embryonic splitting, or cleavage.