Silverweed (Argentina anserina) picture showing red stolons.

Stolons are horizontal stems which grow at the soil surface or below ground that form new plants at the ends or at the node and root at the nodes, they are often called runners. Imprecisely they are above ground stems that run atop or just under the ground more specifically, a stolon is a horizontal shoot from a plant that grows on top or below the soil surface with the ability to produce new clones of the same plant from buds at the tip.^[1]Stolons are similar to normal stems except they produce adventitious roots and they run horizontally to the soil surface normally instead of up into the air, they also have long internodes and only root at the nodes. Such plants are called stoloniferous. A stolon is a plant propagation strategy akin to a rhizome. The complex formed by a mother plant and all its clones connected by stolons is considered to form a single individual. Runners are above ground stolons and produced by many plants, with strawberry being typical. Stolons are different from rhizomes because they do not have the reduced leaves that rhizomes have at the nodes but have scales. Typically stolons have very long internodes and form new plants at the ends while rhizomes most often have short internodes and root along the under side of the stem and not just at the nodes. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (1278 × 958 pixel, file size: 382 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Picture taken by myself: (nl:Zilverschoon plant) Potentilla anserina; Potentilla anserina File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (1278 × 958 pixel, file size: 382 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Picture taken by myself: (nl:Zilverschoon plant) Potentilla anserina; Potentilla anserina File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this... Binomial name Potentilla anserina Silverweed is a flowering perennial in the rose family Rosaceae. ... Divisions Green algae Chlorophyta Charophyta Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta—liverworts Anthocerotophyta—hornworts Bryophyta—mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) †Rhyniophyta—rhyniophytes †Zosterophyllophyta—zosterophylls Lycopodiophyta—clubmosses †Trimerophytophyta—trimerophytes Pteridophyta—ferns and horsetails Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta—seed ferns Pinophyta—conifers Cycadophyta—cycads Ginkgophyta—ginkgo Gnetophyta—gnetae Magnoliophyta—flowering plants... As a word, clone was first coined by J.B.S. Haldane as subject for theoretical replication of a frog, though the term clone is derived from κλων, the Greek word for twig. In horticulture, the spelling clon was used until the twentieth century. ... In vascular plants, the root is that organ of a plant body that typically lies below the surface of the soil (compare with stem). ... Headline text PLANT PROPAGATION TECHNIQUES Adrian Arias Biology 109 October 28, 2005 There are many ways to create new plants; they can be created by sexual or asexual techniques. ... Ginger rhizome A rhizome is, in botany, a usually underground, horizontal stem of a plant that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. ... Species 20+ species; see text The strawberry (Fragaria) is a genus of plants in the family Rosaceae, and the fruit of these plants. ... This article reads like an advertisement. ...

Morphology

Stolons are like long branches of a tree that grow horizontal to the soil surface and produce new plants at the ends, they have nodes and internodes, leaves that are reduced to scales and buds that grow into roots and shoots. Stolons arise from the base of the plant, in straberries the base is above the soil surface, in many bulb forming species and plants with rhizomes, the stolons arise under ground and remain underground and form shoots that rise to the surface at the ends or node which also grow roots. Typically after the formation of the new plant the stolon dies away in a year or two.

The general meaning of stolon does not distinguish morphologically the differences between stolons and rhizomes but just differentiates rhizome and stolon from each other strictly by where they are found, with rhizomes being below ground. Though this is incorrect with a number of plants having soil level or above ground rhizomes including Iris species and many orchid species. Because of this some botany texts now use the term underground stolon to refer to stolons that move under ground[1]. In some Cyperus species the stolons end with the growth of tubers[2]. A number of bulb forming species produce stolons with Erythronium propullans producing a stolon below the soil surface on the midway point of the stem, the end of the stolon produces a new bulb[3]. Iris has three main meanings, related by their derivation from the Greek word for rainbow: Iris (mythology), a messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, identified with the rainbow Iris (anatomy), the sphincter around the pupil of the eye, named after the colors in human and animal eyes Iris (plant... Orchid re-directs here; for alternate uses see Orchid (disambiguation) Genera Over 800 See List of Orchidaceae genera. ... Species About 600 species; see text Cyperus is a large genus of about 600 species of sedges, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. ... Shallot bulbs A bulb is an underground vertical shoot that has modified leaves (or thickened leaf bases) that are used as food storage organs by a dormant plant. ...

Some species of crawling plants can also sprout adventitious roots, but are not considered stoloniferous : a stolon is sprouted from an existing stem and can produce a full individual. Examples of plants that extend through stolons include some species from the genera Argentina, Cynodon, Fragaria (strawberry), and Pilosella (Formerly Hieracium). In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. ... For other uses of the word, please see Genus (disambiguation). ... Species Eight species, including: Cynodon aethiopicus Cynodon arcuatus Cynodon dactylon Cynodon transvaalensis Cynodon (Greek Dog-tooth) is a genus of eight species of grasses in the family Poaceae, found in many parts of the world. ... Species 20+ species; see text The strawberry (Fragaria) is a genus of plants in the family Rosaceae, and the fruit of these plants. ... Genera Hieracium Pilosella Hawkweed refers to any species in the very large genus Hieracium and its segregate genus Pilosella, in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). ... Species See text In botany, hawkweed refers to any species in the very large genus Hieracium of the sunflower family (Asteraceae), typically referred to as an aster. ...

Other plants with stolons below the soil surface include many grasses, Ajuga, Mentha, and Stachys plus Lily-of-the valley which has rhizomes that grow stolons. Species See text Ajuga is a genus with about 40 annuals and perennials from the mint family (Lamiaceae), occurring in the cooler parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. ... “Mint” redirects here. ... Species About 300 species, including: Stachys affinis Stachys alopecuros Stachys alpina Stachys annua Stachys bullata Stachys byzantina Stachys candida Stachys chrysantha Stachys ciliata Stachys citrina Stachys coccinea Stachys corsica Stachys cretica Stachys discolor Stachys ehrenbergii Stachys germanica Stachys hyssopifolia Stachys iva Stachys lavandulifolia Stachys libanotica Stachys macrantha Stachys macrostachya Stachys...

In potatoes, the stolons start to grow within 10 days of plants emerging above ground, with tubers usually beginning to form on the end of the stolons. The tubers are modified stolons that hold food reserves with a few buds that grow into stems. Since it is not a rhizome it does not generate roots, but the new stem growth that grows to the surface produces roots. A tuber is a part of a rhizome thickened for use as a storage organ, usually, though not always, subterranean, such as a potato. ...

T. Holm (1929) restricted the term rhizome to a horizontal, usually subterranean, stem that produces roots from its lower surface and green leaves from its apex, developed directly from the plumule of the embryo. He recognized stolons as axillary, subterranean branches that do not bear green leaves but only membranaceous, scalelike ones[4].

Mycology

In mycology, a stolon is defined as an occasionally septate hyphae, which connect sporangiophores together. Rootlike structures called rhizoids may appear on the stolon as well, anchoring the hyphae to the substrate. A hypha (plural hyphae) is a long, branching filament that, with other hyphae, forms the feeding thallus of a fungus called the mycelium. ... A sporangiophore is a specialized hypha that gives rise to a sporangium. ... Rhizoids, in fungi, are small branching hyphae that grow downwards from the stolons that anchor the fungus. ... In biology a substrate is the surface a plant or animal lives upon. ...

See also

• Root
• Vegetative reproduction

Primary and secondary roots in a cotton plant In vascular plants, the root is that organ of a plant body that typically lies below the surface of the soil (compare with stem). ... Production of new individuals along a leaf margin of the air plant, Kalanchoë pinnata. ...

References

1. ^ Dictionary.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.