The humble runner: how plants and animals use horizontal stems to clone themselves

Health · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: A stolon is more than just a stem; it is a biological strategy for expansion. Whether creeping across a garden bed as a strawberry runner or connecting fungal colonies, these horizontal structures allow organisms to propagate clones, effectively turning a single parent into a sprawling, genetically identical network.

In botany, a stolon—often called a runner—is a slender, horizontal stem that grows along or just beneath the soil surface. Unlike rhizomes, which are fleshy storage stems that persist for years, stolons typically function as temporary conduits for propagation. They emerge from the base of a plant and develop adventitious roots and new shoots at specialized points called nodes. Once these new plantlets establish themselves, the original stolon often dies away within a year or two.

The formation of these structures is a complex physiological process. In potatoes, for example, stolons begin to grow within 10 days of the plant emerging above ground. Research on the cultivar Désirée shows that soil covering triggers a specific developmental transition in basal axillary buds. Over an 11-day period, these buds undergo significant tissue reorganization and transcriptomic shifts, eventually forming white stolons that enter a phase of rapid elongation. In some species, these stolons eventually swell at the tips to become tubers, which serve as starch-accumulating storage organs.

While common in plants like strawberries, grasses, and lilies, the concept of the stolon extends into other kingdoms. In mycology, stolons are hyphae that connect sporangiophores, allowing bread molds to expand across a substrate. In zoology, certain colonial animals, including specific bryozoans and cnidarians, utilize stolons to interconnect individual units. Some polychaete worms even use them as specialized trailers containing reproductive cells that detach to mate. Across these diverse life forms, the stolon remains a masterclass in modular growth, enabling organisms to colonize new territory without the genetic variation introduced by seeds.

General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.

Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?

Related

• Why your garden shrubs might be secretly cloning themselves beneath your feet
• Stems are the plant’s scaffold, pipes, and renewable tissue factory
• The humble rhizome is a horizontal powerhouse for plant survival and asexual reproduction
• Xylem and phloem are the pipes that let plants get tall
• A seedling is a fragile, high-stakes transition from stored energy to independent survival.
• Your stomach is a stretchy acid mill between gullet and gut
• The Steller sea lion is a massive marine predator with surprising cognitive imitation skills.
• The brain's striped striatum lights up for surprise, not just reward
• The stamen is more than a simple stalk; it is a complex reproductive machine.
• The strobilus: Nature's ancient, repeating solution for efficient plant reproduction
• How a rural New York county became a powerhouse for international clinical research trials
• Nature's most vivid colors are not painted, but built from light and geometry

More in Anatomy and morphology · More in Health · Latest · A–Z · All topics