1. Annuals:- Plants that perform their entire life cycle from seed to
flower to seed within a single growing season. All roots, stems and leaves of
the plant die annually. Only the dormant seed bridges the gap between one
generation and the next.
Example - Annual Plains Coreopsis.
2. Biennials:- Plants which require two years to complete their life
cycle. First season growth results in a small rosette of leaves near the soil
surface. During the second season's growth stem elongation, flowering and seed
formation occur followed by the entire plant's death.
Example - Biennial Foxglove
3. Perennials:- Plants that persist for many growing seasons. Generally the
top portion of the plant dies back each winter and re-grows the following
spring from the same root system (e.g. Purple Coneflower). Many perennial
plants do keep their leaves year round and offer attractive borders and
groundcover (e.g. Tickseed, Shasta and Ox-Eyed Daisy).
NOTE: When starting perennial plants from
seed, blooms will be observed in either the spring or summer of the second year
and each year thereafter (e.g. Ox-Eyed Daisy planted in the spring of 1996 will
not bloom until the spring of 1997).
Example - Perennial Purple
Coneflower.
4. Annual/Perennial:- A plant can behave as an annual or a perennial depending on
local climatic and geographic growing conditions. In the southern portion of
the United States, these plants tend to grow much quicker than in the north due
to the warmer weather and extended growing season.
Example
- a Black-Eyed Susan would behave as an annual if grown in Louisiana; whereas,
if grown in Ohio, a Black-Eyed Susan would behave as a perennial.
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