Science Learning Hub logo
TopicsConceptsCitizen scienceTeacher PLDGlossary
Sign in
Activity

Growing new plants without seeds

In this activity, students learn how to grow plants from spores, bulbils, rhizomes, stolons, tubers or cuttings.

By the end of this activity, students should be able to:

  • discuss one way of growing a new plant without using seeds

  • experience one of the following: how to locate spores on a fern frond; how to locate and plant a plantlet growing as a bulbil, from a rhizome or from a stolon; how to divide a tuber or how to make a cutting.

Download the Word file (see link below) for:

  • introduction/background notes

  • what to do

  • discussion questions.

Grafting and budding

See more

Grafting and budding are standard techniques used for propagating new apple varieties. Richard Volz of Plant & Food Research explains how these techniques are carried out.

Rights: The University of Waikato
Referencing Hub media

Growing new plants without seeds

WORD•985.66 KB

Related content

Learn more about some of the the big science ideas behind this activity in the articles Plant reproduction and Plant reproduction without seeds.

Glossary

Published: 2 February 2014
Referencing Hub articles

Explore related content

Vegetative plant propagation

Article

Vegetative plant propagation

Plant propagation is the process of increasing the number of plants of a particular species or cultivar. Propagation can be ...

Read more
Seed-bearing plants

Article

Seed-bearing plants

Plants are living:

Read more
Plant reproduction without seeds

Article

Plant reproduction without seeds

Not every plant grows from a seed. Some plants, like ferns and mosses, grow from spores. Other plants use asexual ...

Read more

See our newsletters here.

NewsEventsAboutContact usPrivacyCopyrightHelp

The Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao is funded through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Science in Society Initiative.

Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao © 2007-2025 The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato