Vegetative propagation

In many plants, a root, stem or leaf can grow into a new plant under the right conditions. Farmers use this through methods such as layering and grafting. Sugarcane, roses and grapes are grown this way. NCERT gives three advantages:

• The plants bear flowers and fruits earlier than plants grown from seed.
• Plants that have lost the ability to make seeds can still be grown. Banana, orange, rose and jasmine are examples.
• The new plants carry the parent's genes almost unchanged, so they keep all its features.

A small example

Cut a potato into small pieces. Some pieces should have a notch, or bud, and some should not. Keep them on wet cotton for a few days. Only the pieces with a bud give rise to green shoots and roots. The leaf of Bryophyllum works the same way. Small buds form in the dips along its edge, drop to the ground and take root.

Where marks go

CBSE's 2026-27 sample paper has no question on it. A marking scheme gives marks for named points, so name the plant and the part that grows. "Bryophyllum, buds on the leaf edge" is clearer than "the leaf grows".

A question on advantages asks for separate points. Each advantage above is one point. Written as separate sentences, each is easy for the examiner to find and mark.

About the author

Deepti Sardana

Founder Member & Academic Lead

An IIT alumna (M.Sc., M.Phil.) with over 25 years in teaching, child psychology and learning assessment. As Academic Lead at EduBrahma, she leads the method TRUtesting uses to find where and why a child loses marks.

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