I'm not sure exactly what you are asking. Cloned plants are the same as the original plants. Picture the original plant and the clone as a single plant, just larger (or in two different locations, although that may be harder to imagine).

only if the original did ... dont you think..

i think of a cutting as a clone ...

i think of tissue culture as clones ...

in my VERY SIMPLIFIED mind .. lol ... a clone is a piece of something .. made to grow into a full sized version of something ...

if that is correct.. then since there was no change of dna .. as in pollination.. it can do no more than what it came from.. as it is.. 'what' it came from ..

name your plant.. in latin ... and we can try to be more specific ...

ken

ps: if there were two clones of dolly the sheep .. male and female ... and they mated.. would that be incest ... wait ... can there only be more dollys from dolly???? .. or ... would we have to use dad donny to get a male clone???? ... so if dolly 2 and donny 2 mate .. would that make the offspring just another dolly or danny... or would they be their own brother and sister ... oh god.. i just gave myself a headache .... lol [there is a joke in here somewhere.. i am just not sure i found it.. lol]

I'm pretty sure Ken had to be under the influence of some really powerful substance when he wrote that sheep analogy thing. LOL

let me put this another way. i was told by the people at Va. Tech that cloned varieties would not produce true seeds.
that they could only be reproduced vegatatively.
my question is , if a true botanical variety produces true seeds -why cant a cloned variety do so .

There are two possibilities here. One is that you misunderstood what they were saying (poor communications). The other is that whoever told you this was not knowledgeable on the subject (ignorance).

My guess is that what they were trying to say is that most cultivars cannot be reproduced sexually (whether from the original plant or from a clone of that plant). In other words, the seed from a Asimina triloba 'Wansevwan' does not produce another Asimina triloba 'Wansevwan', but rather just a plain species Asimina triloba, possibly with some noticeable similarities to the cultivar. Cloning (ie. vegetative reproduction) is necessary to reproduce most cultivars.

The term botanical variety actually refers to a sub-group of a species of plant with characteristic differences, from other members of the species, that are inheritable and reproduce true-to-type. Gleditsia triacanthos v. inermis, crossed with Gleditsia triacanthos v. inermis, will produce Gleditsia triacanthos v. inermis.

Although the term variety is frequently confused and often used to describe what is actually a cultivar, it is a different thing (especially when combined with the term botanical).

many of the really foo foo versions of plants.. are at the end of the genetic spectrum ... and sterile ... they dont make seeds.. so there is no issue of whether the seeds come true ...

the ONLY WAY to duplicate them.. is by cloning .. e.g. taking a cutting and rooting it

beyond that.. it is hard to guess at a third party conversation ....

let me put it this way .... the cheapest way to duplicate a plant i thru seeds... if that is available.. no one is going to invest in propagating it any other way ...

why would a grower grow thru all the cost of cloning.. if it came true from seed ???

if you have a specific plant in mind.. it might further the conversation ....

ken