Asexual reproduction

Reproduction keeps a kind of living thing going, though no single living thing needs it to stay alive. In asexual reproduction one parent alone makes offspring by ordinary cell division, so they carry its genes and are copies of it. Bacteria split in two (binary fission), every twenty minutes when food and warmth allow; yeast grows buds that become new cells; a piece broken off a moss grows into a whole moss (fragmentation). It is fast and needs no partner, but all the offspring are alike, so a change in their surroundings can harm them all.