Plants reproduce asexually mainly by vegetative propagation, fragmentation and spore formation, without fusion of gametes.
- Vegetative propagation: new plants grow from vegetative parts such as root, stem, leaf or bud. Potato grows from the "eyes" on its tuber, sweet potato from its roots, Bryophyllum from buds on its leaf margins, and sugarcane and grasses from buds on their nodes.
- Fragmentation: in algae like Spirogyra, the filament breaks into small fragments when water and nutrients are plentiful, and each fragment grows into a new filament.
- Spore formation: fungi like Mucor (bread mould) produce spores in sporangia. The sporangia burst and release spores, which germinate in moist, warm places to form new colonies.
All these methods involve only mitosis and one parent, so the young plants are genetically identical to the parent and are produced quickly.