*** Welcome to piglix ***

Fissiparity


Fragmentation or clonal fragmentation in multi cellular or colonial organisms is a form of asexual reproduction or cloning in which an organism is split into fragments. Each of these fragments develop into mature, fully grown individuals that are clones of the original organism.


Fragmentation, also known as splitting, as a method of reproduction is seen in many organisms such as filamentous cyanobacteria, molds, lichens, many plants, and animals such as sponges, acoel flatworms, some annelid worms and sea stars.

Moulds, yeasts and mushrooms, all of which are part of the Fungi kingdom, produce tiny filaments called hyphae. These hyphae obtain food and nutrients from the body of other organisms to grow and fertilize. Then a piece of hyphae breaks off and grows into a new individual and the cycle continues.

Many lichens produce specialized structures that can easily break away and disperse. These structures contain both the hyphae of the mycobiont and the algae(phycobiont) (see soredia and isidia. Larger fragments of the thallus may break away when the lichen dries or due to mechanical disturbances(see the section on reproduction in lichens).

Fragmentation is a very common type of vegetative reproduction in plants. Many trees, shrubs, nonwoody perennials, and ferns form clonal colonies by producing new rooted shoots by rhizomes or stolons, which increases the diameter of the colony. If a rooted shoot becomes detached from the colony, then fragmentation has occurred. There are several other mechanisms of natural fragmentation in plants.


...
Wikipedia

...