The goal of vegetative propagation (like cuttings, grafting and tissue culture) is to reproduce progeny plants identical in genotype to a single source plant. The biological process is known as cloning and the resulting population is called a clone.

Cloning can occur in nature by special vegetative structures like bulbs or rhizomes. This can provide special advantages for colonizing a specific site, but is generally not favored over sexual reproduction in nature.

Photo with rows of clone plants in an outdoor field. Photo with rows of clone plants in a greenhouse.