Content
Araucaria excelsa: Determined cuttings
Vegetative or asexual reproduction of plants is horticulturally simple. You all know
how potted geraniums are reproduced from cuttings: individual shoots are snipped off
and rooted and rapidly grow into new plants capable of blooming on their own. These
cuttings are genetically identical to the plants from which they were taken, and look
just like them.
Some plants can’t be reproduced asexually, or their cuttings don’t behave as expected.
In front of you is a Norfolk Island pine, or Araucaria heterophylla. Across from
it is a 30-year-old cutting. The cutting only grows laterally, and does not develop a
vertical trunk. This is because the Norfolk pine, like some other conifers, has strongly
determined shoots. In other words, a branch is always a branch. That may sound banal,
but it means that a cutting taken from the tip of a side branch will continue to grow in
the form of a branch, and will never take the form of a complete tree.
Audio file download
Araucaria excelsa: Determined cuttings (MP3, 483 KB)
© 2022 Botanical Garden München-Nymphenburg