Graft

Graft - Grafting [ Horticulture ]
Synonym: Transplanting, Budding
Adjective: Grafted

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names


	The process of Combining two different plants by joining a bud or a section cut from the stem from a choice plant (known as the scion) on a selected rootstock or stem of another plant (known as the stock) so that, when the union heals the cambium of the two plants meet and they behave as a single plant.

Budding/Grafting is a method of plant propagation widely used in horticulture, This is often done to produce a hardier or more disease resistant plant or to propagate desirable cultivars or forms selected for their stems, leaves or flowers. It is most commonly used for the propagation of trees and shrubs.
Cacti and other succulents of widely different forms are also sometimes grafted on to each other.
Grafting can only be done between reasonably closely related plants. Most often the limits of success are with other species in the same genus or Family.
For successful grafting to take place, the cambium tissues of the stock and scion plants must be placed in contact with each other. Both tissues must be kept alive till the graft has taken, usually a period of a few weeks. Successful grafting only requires that a vascular connection takes place between the two tissues.

In stem grafting (a common type of grafting) a shoot of a desired plant is grafted onto the stock of another type. The graft union is the point at which the scion and the stock were joined together
In budding (another common type of grafting) , a dormant side bud is grafted on the stem of another stock plant, and when it has fused successfully, it is encouraged to grow by cutting out the stem above the new bud – In this case the point where a plant has been grafted is called the Bud Union. Usually indicated by a small knoblike growth on a stem.
Occasionally, a so-called "graft hybrid" or "chimera" can occur where the tissues of the stock continue to grow within the scion
The cultivation of grafteds plant is usually easier but it is sometime necessary to eliminate the Suckers that comes from below the graft union (where the top of the plant was originally joined to the stock). Removing the growth as close to the main body of the plant as possible.

Other major methods of asexual propagation are cuttings, layering, division, and budding/grafting.

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994