Layering

Layering [ Horticulture ]	Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

A common method of propagation, by which a a shoot of a plant is rooted while still attached to the parent plant laying on or partially buried in the soil by securing it to the soil with a piece of wire.

Layering is a method of propagating a plant where the stem is pegged down to the soil, still attached to the mother plant, to make it form adventitious roots and create a new plant which is capable of independent growth after separation from parent plant.
This is the simplest method of propagation, although the least efficient in terms of time and number of regenerants per plant. Many woody herbs propagate by layering naturally when trailing branches grow close to the soil surface and send down roots.

There are two primary methods of layering.

In ground layering: A proces of producing roots in which a low-growing branch is bent to the ground and covered with soil.
In air layering: A process of producing roots on old aboveground branches by stripping bark from an area and wrapping in moist rooting medium (e.g. sphagnam moss), or by wrapping moist rooting medium around a node on an stem.

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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