Abstract:Vegetative vivipary in plants refers to some organs, such as gemmae, bulbils, adventitious buds and leaves, which don't fall off after maturation, they absorb the maternal nutrition directly and continue to grow and develop, then break off and form new plants in the natural state. There are many kinds of viviparous plants, most of which are the results of long-term adaptation to harsh environment, such as drought, cold and high temperature at long term, it is an important supplement of breeding pathway. Compared with the traditional asexual reproduction, vegetative vivipary has higher propagation coefficient and regeneration, lower rate of virus infection, so it has an important application value in production. The four aspects, including morphological anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, molecular biology and reproduction characteristics of viviparous organs, were reviewed. At present, the researches were still in the early stage and the nature of vivipary phenomenon has not been systematically explained, the shortcomings in current studies are pointed out and the future directions are prospected which conclude the regulation mechanism and important functional genes of vegetative vivipary, and how to adapt the new environmental change is also the future research direction of viviparous plants. So systematic studies of vivipary not only help to understand the nature and evolutionary process of adaptive phenomenon, but also provide a theoretical basis for population propogation, mass production and wide application, and biodiversity conservation of viviparous plants.
