Perennial

Rare card · No. 38339

In botany, perennial (per- + -ennial, "through the year") is a plant that lives more than 2 years. Perennials contrast with shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also loosely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth (secondary growth in girth) from trees and shrubs, which are also technically perennials. An estimated 94% of plant species are perennials. Perennials (especially small flowering plants) that grow and bloom over the spring and summer, die back every autumn and winter, and then return in the spring from their rootstock or other overwintering structure, are known as herbaceous perennials. However, depending on the rigours of the local climate (temperature, moisture, organic content in the soil, microorganisms), a plant that is a perennial in its native habitat, may be treated by a gardener as an annual and planted out every year, from seed, from cuttings, or from divisions. Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural tropical/ subtropical...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Agnieszka Kwiecień (Nova), CC BY-SA 3.0