A young plant or organism in an early stage of development; also refers to a plant produced by budding (asexual reproduction).
From bud + -ling (Old English suffix for 'young creature' or 'one that is'). Similar to 'duckling' or 'sapling,' it indicates something in its earliest useful stage.
Budlings are clones—they're exact genetic copies of their parent plant created without any sexual reproduction, which is why farmers use budding to guarantee identical fruit trees!
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