In multicelled organisms such as plants, broken pieces from the plants can develop into new plants. Special roots, called adventitious roots, develop directly from stems or leaves instead of from the normal root system. Fragmentation is an example of vegetative asexual reproduction. In this process, a new plant grows from a part broken from a parent plant. The cutting taken from the geranium plant grows into a plant identical to the parent plant.
Asexual reproduction has several advantages.
First, this method can be used to grow identical plants faster and more successfully than a method that relies on seed germination. Second, seedless fruit can be produced and propagated via vegetative reproduction. Third, asexual reproduction preserves the status quo in that the offspring are always exactly like the parent. By making small changes to some part of the original experiment, a student can attain different results. The first step in changing the original experiment into a new science fair project is to try new approaches.