subject: Plant life cycles made simple [print this page] Plant life cycles made simple Plant life cycles made simple
Have you ever wondered about where the difference between annuals, biennials and perennials is? Always when you are about to choose new plants you can meet those terms, which simply refer to the plant's life cycle and understanding of them can help you understand your plants.
Annuals, biennials and perennials are three main categories of plants, based on time plants take to grow, flower and die. From a gardener's perspective, a plant's status as annual, biennial, or perennial often varies based on location or purpose.
Annual plant germinates, grows, sets seed and dies within one year. Most grow from spring through summer and die in the late autumn. Removing the flowers as they fade prolongs the blooming cycle, but if left to produce seeds, many annuals will readily reseed themselves. They are an excellent way to create a great splash of summer color in the garden bedding, or for long blooming annual baskets. Examples:
Biennial plant lives for two years. The first year's growth is usually leafy; plant is not flowering, and in the second year comes flowering, setting seeds and death.
Biennials are often confused for perennials because so many of them self- seed and appear to live on for many years.
Under extreme climatic conditions, a biennial plant may complete its life cycle in a very short period of time.
Left: carrot; Right: parsley; we treat them as an annuals, but in fact, they are biennials!
Last and the largest group are perennials. Perennial (Latin per, "through", annus, "year") Those plants live for minimum 3 years.
This is a very broad group and is further sub-divided into:
a) herbaceous perennials like Bergenia cordifolia or Helleborus orientalis these plants do not form woody stems, trunks and very often die down in the winter
b) woody perennials like shrubs and trees they form woody stems and do not die down to ground level in the winter.
Clockwise: Bergenia cordifolia ; Helleborus orientalis ; Black Bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra ); Box ;
