How Do Vascular Plants Reproduce?

Vascular plants reproduce in a variety of ways. Sexual reproduction is one method, while other methods are asexual. Asexual methods keep the same genes. Sexual reproduction ensures a diversity of genetics among a species.

Vascular plants produce either seeds or spores. Plants like fir trees are gymnosperms; flowering plants are angiosperms and make up the largest segment of plants on earth today. Ferns and other less-developed vascular plants produce spores. Both seeds and spores are made by combining female and male material.

Plants use a number of methods of asexual reproduction, but all share a similar trait -- the parent plant produces material that grows into another, genetically identical vascular plant.

Runners are a method of asexual reproduction by plants like strawberries or pachysandra. The plants put out runners along the ground that develop their own roots, eventually growing into mature plants.

The roots of some vascular plants are called rhizomes. They grow under the ground and develop shoots that grow out of the soil and into a new, mature plant. Many grasses and bamboos do exactly this. These plants are sometimes called clumping plants, since they form clumps of related and connected plants.

Plants that grow from bulbs and corms often grow offshoots to the parent bulb or corm. These offshoots or baby bulbs grow into adult plants. Often the new offshoots remain small and don't grow into a new plant unless the parent dies.

Many vascular plants use both sexual and asexual reproduction methods. Tulips produce seeds and will also grow offshoots from their bulbs. Pachysandra reproduces quickly using runners but also puts out flowers in the spring that produce seeds. Bamboo is known for forming clumps using rhizomes but produces seeds as well.