stolon

A long shoot which bends under its own weight to the ground, and roots at the tip or at the nodes to form new plants.

A stolon, commonly referred to as a runner, is an aerial shoot from a plant with the ability to produce adventitious roots and new offshoots of the same plant.

The complex formed by a mother plant and all its offshoot connected by stolons are considered to form a single individual.

Note that some species of crawling plants can also sprout adventitious roots, but these are not considered stoloniferous : a stolon is sprouted from an existing stem.

In potatoes, the stolons start to grow within 10 days of plants emerging above ground, with tubers usually beginning to form on the end of the stolons.