Definition of budding in hydra

Budding (also called burgeoning) is the formation of a new organism by the protrusion of part of another organism. This is very common in plants and fungi, but may be found in some animals as well, such as the Hydra. Usually, the protrusion stays attached to the primary organism for a while, before becoming free. The new organism is naturally genetically identical to the primary one (a clone), so, as with binary fission, there is not as much genetic variation in offspring as occurs with sexual reproduction.