Q.How do plants reproduce without seeds ?
Seedless reproduction is asexual: a single parent produces genetically identical offspring without gametes, meiosis or fertilization.
A seed is the product of sexual reproduction, so 'reproduction without seeds' means the asexual routes. In lower plants a body may break into fragments that each regrow (Spirogyra), put out buds that separate as new individuals (yeast, Protosiphon), or form spores such as the motile zoospores of Chlamydomonas; binary fission (Chlorella, diatoms), conidia (Penicillium) and gemmae (Marchantia) are further examples.
Higher plants do the same thing with their vegetative organs. Roots (sweet potato, dahlia), stems (rhizomes, tubers, bulbs) and leaves (Bryophyllum, Kalanchoe, Begonia) carry buds that grow into complete plants, and growers copy this with cuttings, grafting, budding and tissue culture. In every case there is no meiosis and no fusion of gametes, so the offspring are clones of the single parent, which is exactly why these methods are used to multiply a desirable variety unchanged.
The MSBSHSE Class 12 Biology syllabus is aligned with the NCERT/CBSE curriculum, so the same idea is examined in NEET and CBSE Class 12 papers.
Without seeds, plants reproduce asexually: by fragmentation, budding, spore formation (and fission, conidia, gemmae) in lower plants, and by vegetative propagation from roots, stems and leaves, natural or artificial (cutting, grafting, budding, tissue culture), in higher plants; the offspring are clones of the parent.
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