Not seed at all

[gote]

I do not know whether this is ”I am so happy” or ”I am so sad” so I put it as seeds 
There are plants that I sow repeatedly from seed exchanges and they never germinate. Not surprising since it is usually woodlanders and their seeds often have short shelf life.
Even fresh seed from my own garden may germinate as badly. 
I am not an industrious weeder but when I weed I sometimes find that the impossible/difficult ones have sown themselves all by themselves. Among these are Helleborus thibetanus, Ranzania japonica (which sometimes DOES germinate in a pot) Veratrum nigrum and some others. 
However - This week I found that my self sown seedlings of Heloniopsis are not that at all. They turned out to be new little plants that have developed at the tips of leaves. I now suspect that my ”self sown seedlings” of Ypsilandra also have emerged from leaf tips. 
Comments anyone??
Göte

[WimB]

Hi Göte,

Helionopsis and Ypsilandra are very easy to grow from leaf cuttings, the tiny plantlets grow either on the tip or in the middle of the leaf. We had a discussion about that on the VRV forum last year: http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=316.0. To go immediately to the pictures of the small plantlets: http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=316.msg11658#msg11658

Cheers

Wim

[gote]

Interesting Vim. I will try to propagate my remaining kinds of Heloniopsis next year. However, since they did it by themselves very successfully I will try layering rather than cutting since layering needs less attention. I was a little surprised that they form new plants from leaf tips. Usually a piece of stem or at least petiole is required. It will assure, of course, that daughter plants arise at a distance from the mother plant. I wonder how many other genera will do this - place for experiments I think.
Cheers
Göte   

[WimB]

Interesting Vim. I will try to propagate my remaining kinds of Heloniopsis next year. However, since they did it by themselves very successfully I will try layering rather than cutting since layering needs less attention. I was a little surprised that they form new plants from leaf tips. Usually a piece of stem or at least petiole is required. It will assure, of course, that daughter plants arise at a distance from the mother plant. I wonder how many other genera will do this - place for experiments I think.
Cheers
Göte

Layering should work just as well, you'll get baby plants on the leaf tips. With cuttings you seem to get them over the entire lenght of the leaf. Last year I even had one leafcutting which formed three plantlets (one on the tip and two in the middle of the leaf) and most of them formed two plantlets. Strangely enough they never formed plantlets at the base of the leaf (where I would have expected them to appear). Like you said, it has a certain benefit, the plants can form a larger colony quickly!
 
Someone told me I should try it with Helonias bullata, I wonder???