Anyone currently suffering through the pollen-induced spring allergy season knows from personal experience that number of plants reproduce sexually. However, a number of varieties of plants use asexual means of reproduction (that is, any one of the forms of reproduction that do not use meiosis and so do not require the use of sex cells). Asexual reproduction results in a new, but genetically identical individual. There are distinct advantages to both forms of reproduction (which occur in other kingdoms as well). The primary advantage of sexual reproduction is that it allows for a high degree of genetic variability, which, in turn, allows for the creation of a population that is both well adapted to its environment (i.e. is likely to produce a large number of reproductively successful offspring) and has sufficient variability present to allow the species to adapt to changing conditions (through the process of natural selection among varied individuals). While the advantages that sexual reproduction offer to species are so great that many plants and animals rely solely on sexual reproduction, there are drawbacks to this method of reproduction, including the fact that in highly stable environments the genetic/somatic variations that necessarily arise through sexual reproduction are likely to prove to be disadvantageous the fact that sexual reproduction requires individual members of a species to find each other (i.e. through the process of pollination), a process that can be bedeviled in a number of different ways.
Asexual reproduction obviates both of these potential problems that can occur with sexual reproduction, but it does not drawbacks of its own. Although an individual is guaranteed the ability to reproduce with asexual reproduction (something that is not guaranteed with sexual reproduction), asexual reproduction does not allow for genetic or somatic variation, which can prove to be harmful (and even lethal) in an environment ...