Grafting in the context of Leaf

A cultivar is a kind of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, or carefully controlled seed production. Most cultivars arise from deliberate human manipulation, but some originate from wild plants that have distinctive characteristics. Cultivar names are chosen according to rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP), and not all cultivated plants qualify as cultivars. Horticulturists generally believe the word cultivar was coined as a term meaning "cultivated variety".

Popular ornamental plants like roses, camellias, daffodils, rhododendrons, and azaleas are commonly cultivars produced by breeding and selection or as sports, for floral colour or size, plant form, or other desirable characteristics. Similarly, the world's agricultural food crops are almost exclusively cultivars that have been selected for characters such as improved yield, flavour, and resistance to disease. Since the advent of genetic engineering in the 1970s and the rise of its application in crop breeding in the 1980s, very few wild plants are used as commercial food sources. Trees used in forestry are also special selections grown for their enhanced quality and yield of timber, for example American timber company Weyerhaeuser is the leading grower of genetically modified Douglas-fir trees, one of the most commonly harvested trees.

A plant cutting is a piece of a plant that is used in horticulture for vegetative (asexual) propagation. A piece of the stem or root of the source plant is placed in a suitable medium such as moist soil. If the conditions are suitable, the plant piece will begin to grow as a new plant independent of the parent, a process known as striking. A stem cutting produces new roots, and a root cutting produces new stems. Some plants can be grown from leaf pieces, called leaf cuttings, which produce both stems and roots. The scions used in grafting are also called cuttings.

Propagating plants from cuttings is an ancient form of cloning. There are several advantages of cuttings, mainly that the produced offspring are practically clones of their parent plants. If a plant has favorable traits, it can continue to pass down its advantageous genetic information to its offspring. This is especially economically advantageous as it allows commercial growers to clone a certain plant to ensure consistency throughout their crops.

An apple is the round, edible fruit of an apple tree (Malus spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (Malus domestica), the most widely grown in the genus, are cultivated worldwide. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia before they were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have cultural significance in many mythologies (including Norse and Greek) and religions (such as Christianity in Europe).

Apples grown from seeds tend to be very different from those of their parents, and the resultant fruit frequently lacks desired characteristics. For commercial purposes, including botanical evaluation, apple cultivars are propagated by clonal grafting onto rootstocks. Apple trees grown without rootstocks tend to be larger and much slower to fruit after planting. Rootstocks are used to control the speed of growth and the size of the resulting tree, allowing for easier harvesting.

In horticulture, a graft-chimaera may arise in grafting at the point of contact between rootstock and scion and will have properties intermediate between those of its "parents". Unlike graft hybrids, a graft-chimaera is not a true hybrid but a mixture of cells, each with the genotype of one of its "parents": it is a chimaera. Hence, the once widely used term "graft-hybrid" is inaccurate for a graft-chimaera.

Propagation is by cloning only. In practice graft-chimaeras are not noted for their stability and may easily revert to one of the "parents".

A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a rhizome or underground stem. In grafting, it refers to a plant, sometimes just a stump, which already has an established, healthy root system, onto which a cutting or a bud from another plant is grafted. In some cases, such as vines of grapes and other berries, cuttings may be used for rootstocks, the roots being established in nursery conditions before planting them out.

The plant part grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion, which has the properties the propagator desires above ground, including the photosynthetic activity and the fruit or decorative properties. The rootstock is selected for its interaction with the soil, providing the roots and the stem to support the new plant, obtaining the necessary soil water and minerals, and resisting the relevant pests and diseases. After a few weeks, the tissues of the two parts will have grown together, eventually forming a single plant. After some years, it may be difficult to detect the site of the graft although the product always contains the components of two genetically different plants.

Inosculation is a natural phenomenon in which trunks, branches or roots of two trees grow together in a manner biologically similar to the artificial process of grafting. It customarily results when tree limbs are braided or pleached. The branches first grow separately in proximity to each other until they touch. At this point, the bark on the touching surfaces is gradually abraded away as the trees move in the wind. Once the cambium of two trees touches, they sometimes self-graft and grow together as they expand in diameter.

In forestry gemels (from the Latin word for "a pair") are trees that have undergone the process. Inosculation can happen across related species and occurs most commonly for branches of two trees of the same species.

The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear (Persea americana) is an evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas, with archaeological evidence of early human avocado use dating back thousands of years across various regions of Central and South America. It was prized for its large and unusually oily fruit. The native range of avocado (Persea americana) extends from Mexico to Peru, encompassing much of Central America and parts of northern and western South America.

Its fruit, sometimes also referred to as an alligator pear or avocado pear, is botanically a large berry containing a single large seed. Sequencing of its genome showed that the evolution of avocados was shaped by polyploidy events and that commercial varieties have a hybrid origin. Avocado trees are partly self-pollinating, and are often propagated through grafting to maintain consistent fruit output. Avocados are presently cultivated in the tropical and Mediterranean climates of many countries. As of 2023, Mexico is the world's leading producer of avocados, supplying 29% of the global harvest of 10.5 million tonnes.

Canaiolo (Italian pronunciation: [kanaˈjɔːlo]), also called Canaiolo nero or Uva Canina, is a red Italian wine grape grown through Central Italy but is most noted in Tuscany. Other regions with plantings of Canaiolo include Lazio, Marche and Sardegna. In Umbria a white berried mutation known as Canaiolo bianco exists. Together with Sangiovese and Colorino it is often used to create Chianti wine and is an important but secondary component of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. In the history of Chianti it has been a key component blend and during the 18th century may have been the primarily grape used in higher percentage than Sangiovese. Part of its popularity may have been the grape's ability to partially dry out without rotting for use in the governo method of prolonging fermentation. In the 19th century, the Chianti recipe of Bettino Ricasoli called for Canaiolo to play a supporting role to Sangiovese, adding fruitiness and softening tannins without detracting from the wine's aromas. In the aftermath of the phylloxera epidemic, the Canaiolo vines did not take well to grafting onto new American rootstock and the grape began to steadily fall out of favor. As of 2006, total plantings of Canaiolo throughout Italy dropped to under 7,410 acres (3,000 hectares). Today there are renewed efforts by Tuscan winemakers to find better clonal selections and re-introduce the variety into popular usage.

A white sub-variety exists, known as Canaiolo bianco, which is a permitted grape variety in the Umbrian wine region of Orvieto where is known as Drupeggio. In recent years plantings have been declining.

Prunus 'Kanzan' (Prunus serrulata 'Kanzan'. syn. Prunus lannesiana 'Kanzan', Cerasus Sato-zakura Group 'Sekiyama' Koidz, Kwanzan or Sekiyama, Japanese 関山) is a flowering cherry cultivar. It was developed in the Edo period in Japan as a result of multiple interspecific hybrids based on the Oshima cherry.

It is a deciduous tree that grows to between 1 and 9 metres (3 ft 3 in and 29 ft 6 in) high with an 8-metre (25 ft) spread. Young trees have a vase-shaped habit that becomes more spreading into maturity. In winter they produce red buds, opening to 5-centimetre (2 in) diameter deep-pink double flowers.The trees, which are usually propagated by chip budding or grafting, prefer a well-drained location in full sun.

Chile has a long history in the production of wine, with roots dating back to the 16th century when the Spanish conquistadors introduced Vitis vinifera vines to the region. In the mid-19th century, French wine varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carmenère, and Cabernet Franc were introduced. During the early 1980s, the Chilean wine industry underwent a renaissance with the introduction of stainless steel fermentation tanks and the use of oak barrels for aging. This led to a rapid growth in exports as quality wine production increased. The number of wineries in Chile rose from 12 in 1995 to over 70 in 2005.

The late 20th century saw a large number of French immigrants settling in Chile, bringing with them extensive viticultural knowledge. Today, Chile stands as the fifth largest exporter of wine globally and the seventh largest producer. The climate in Chile has been described as a fusion of the climates in California and France. The most commonly grown grape variety in the country are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Carmenère. Chile is also fortunate to remain free of the phylloxera louse, which means that its grapevines do not require grafting with phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.

A genetic chimerism or chimera (/kaɪˈmɪərə, kɪ-/ ky-MEER-ə, kih-) is a single organism composed of cells of different genotypes. Animal chimeras can be produced by the fusion of two (or more) embryos. In plants and some animal chimeras, mosaicism involvesdistinct types of tissue that originated from the same zygote, but differ due to mutation during ordinary cell division.

Normally, genetic chimerism is not visible on casual inspection; however, it has been detected in the course of proving parentage. More practically, in agronomy, "chimera" indicates a plant or portion of a plant whose tissues are made up of two or more types of cells with different genetic makeup; it can derive from a bud mutation or, more rarely, at the grafting point, from the concrescence of cells of the two bionts; in this case it is commonly referred to as a "graft hybrid", although it is not a hybrid in the genetic sense of "hybrid".

Tree shaping (also known by several other alternative names) uses living trees and other woody plants as the medium to create structures and art. There are a few different methods used by the various artists to shape their trees, which share a common heritage with other artistic horticultural and agricultural practices, such as pleaching, bonsai, espalier, and topiary, and employing some similar techniques. Most artists use grafting to deliberately induce the inosculation of living trunks, branches, and roots, into artistic designs or functional structures.

Tree shaping has been practiced for at least several hundred years, as demonstrated by the living root bridges built and maintained by the Khasi people of India. Early 20th-century practitioners and artisans included banker John Krubsack, Axel Erlandson with his Tree Circus, and landscape engineer Arthur Wiechula. Several contemporary designers also produce tree-shaping projects.

Arthur Wiechula (January 20, 1867 – 1941) was a German landscape engineer. His marriage to Lydia Lindnau, produced three children, Margarethe (1895), Max (1897) and Ernst (1900).

He received the German Royal State Inventor's Honor Cross. In 1926, he published Wachsende Häuser aus lebenden Bäumen entstehend (Developing Houses from Living Trees) in German, describing simple building techniques involves guiding and grafting live branches together; including a system of v-shaped lateral cuts used to bend and curve individual trunks and branches in the direction of a design, with reaction wood soon closing the wounds to hold the curve.

Shield budding, also known as T-budding, is a technique of grafting to change varieties of fruit trees. Typically used in fruit tree propagation, it can also be used for many other kinds of nursery stock. An extremely sharp knife is necessary; specialty budding knives are on the market. A budding knife is a small knife with a type of spatula at the other end of the handle. The rootstock or stock plant may be cut off above the bud at budding, or one may wait until it is certain that the bud is growing.

Fruit tree budding is done when the bark "slips," i.e. the cambium is moist and actively growing. Rootstocks are young trees, either seedlings as Mazzard cherries for many cherry varieties, or clonal rootstocks (usually propagated by layering) when one wants highly consistent plants with well defined characteristics. The popular Malling-Merton series of rootstocks for apples was developed in England, and are used today for the majority of the commercial apple orchard trees.