ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with strategies of spread and reproduction that involve asexual and vegetative processes. It explores various physiological and ecological aspects of asexual reproduction in weeds and describes information on the geographic distribution and economic importance of the world’s worst weeds. Vegetative reproduction offers means of spread and propagation without recourse to any reproductive process that involves flowering. Vegetative propagules lack the anatomical and morphological features by which weeds and seed-containing propagules are able to take advantage of regularly occurring and, therefore, dependable, environmental agents of dispersal such as wind, water and animals. In Rubus fruticosus, survival of daughter plants originated from adventitious buds on creeping roots was much higher than that of seedlings. The potential for regeneration is determined by different factors in nonadventitious buds and in adventitious ones. Regeneration buds are usually produced in association with underground perennating structures possessing long-term storage capacity.
