Budding

High magnification view of a budding yeast

Budding is a way of asexual reproduction. With budding, a new organism grows on another one. It stays attached, while it grows. Only when it is fully grown does it detach from the parent organism. Since the reproduction is asexual, the newly created organism is a clone and is genetically identical to the parent organism.

Budding is very common in plants and fungi. Sometimes it can also be found with animals, for example with hydras or sponges.