grafting

Grafting, a method of artificial propagation in plants, is commonly used in the propagation of roses and fruit trees. A relatively small part, the scion, of one plant is attached to another plant so that growth continues. The plant receiving the transplanted material is called the stock.

In medicine, the operation by which an organ or other living tissue is removed from one organism and transplanted into the same or a different organism.

In horticulture, it is a technique widely used for propagating plants, especially woody species. A bud or shoot on one plant, termed the scion, is inserted into another, the stock, so that they continue growing together, the tissues combining at the point of union. In this way some of the advantages of both plants are obtained.

Grafting is usually only successful between species that are closely related and is most commonly practised on roses and fruit trees. The grafting of nonwoody species is more difficult but it is sometimes used to propagate tomatoes and cacti. See also transplant.

In France a robot rose-grafter was developed 1993. The laboratory prototype completed each graft within 40 seconds.