Blastochory

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The blastochory (seldom: blastautochory) is the vegetative spread of plants by self- runners that serve the purpose of reproduction . Blastochory is a form of self-propagation, or autochory . The term is also occasionally used for plant species in which seeds are deposited at the end of long, creeping runners, i.e. as a form of autochorous generative reproduction .

description

blastochore plants spread over long, creeping runners (here in the creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens )

Some plants, such as the garden strawberry and the wild strawberry, are able to form aboveground runners ( stolons ) several meters long . These form adventitious roots in suitable places and develop new plants there. This mechanism of spread is also typical of a number of field weeds such as couch grass and bindweed . Plants such as cinnabar , knotweed and speed ivy also develop long crawling shoots, at the end of which they bloom and fruit. Here the creeping shoots also serve to spread, but no vegetative offshoots are formed.

Blastochore expansion is a supplemental strategy for most plants. For example, wild strawberries are mainly spread by consuming the aggregate fruits on which the nuts are sitting and thereby carrying the latter away ( endochory ).

Horticultural propagation

The ability of many plants to blastochoria is an aspect of horticulture , as it enables plants to multiply via subsides or cuttings .

Literature and Sources

  • Susanne Bonn, Peter Poschlod: Propagation biology of the plants of Central Europe. Basics and cultural-historical aspects. Quelle & Meyer Verlag, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-8252-8142-6 , p. 40.
  • Matthias Schaefer: Dictionary of Ecology. 5th edition. Spektrum / Springer, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8274-2561-4 , p. 45.
  • Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Erwin Beck, Klaus Müller-Hohenstein: Plant Ecology. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-540-20833-X , p. 543.
  • Michael Allaby: A Dictionary of Plant Sciences. 4th edition. Oxford University Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-19-256978-3 . (" blastochory: dispersal of a plant by means of offshoot ")
  • Pascal Vittoz, Robin Engler: Seed dispersal distances: a typology based on dispersal modes and plant traits. In: Botanica Helvetia. 117 (2), 2007, pp. 109-124.
  • Paul Müller-Schneider, Marie Lhotská: On the terminology of the distribution biology of flowering plants. In: Folia Geobotanica & Phytotaxonomica. 6 (4), 1971, pp. 407-417. JSTOR 4179647
  • Gerhard Wagenitz : Dictionary of botany. Morphology, anatomy, taxonomy, evolution. 2nd, expanded edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-937872-94-0 , p. 43 (Blastautochore).