Annual plant: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

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Annual plant

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	Annual plant
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	Topics Annual plant Topic Home Botanically, an annual plant is a plant Plants are a major group of living things including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, ferns, and mosses.... that usually germinates Germination is the process where growth emerges from a resting stage.... , flower A flower,rflorem<flos), also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found i... s and dies in one year A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.... . True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed. Some seedless plants can also be considered annuals even though they do not flower. In gardening, annual often refers to a plant grown outdoors in the spring and summer and surviving just for one growing season. Many food plants are, or are grown as, annuals, including most domesticated grain Cereal crops are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible grains or seeds .... s. Some perennials A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years.... and biennials A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes between twelve and twenty-four months to complete its lifecycle.... are grown in gardens as annuals for convenience, particularly if they are not considered cold hardy Hardiness of plants is a term used to describe their ability to survive adverse growing conditions.... for the local climate. Carrot The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange or white in color with a woody texture.... , celery Celery is a herbaceous biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the coasts of western and northern Europe, most com... and parsley Parsley is a bright green, biennial herb that is very common in Middle Eastern, European, and American cooking.... are true biennials that are usually grown as annual crops for their edible roots, petioles and leaves, respectively. Tomato The tomato is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, native to Central, South, and southern North America from Me... , sweet potato The sweet potato is a crop plant whose large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are an important root vegetable.... and bell pepper Bell pepper is a Cultivar Group of the species Capsicum annuum, as are the jalapeo and pimento.... are tender perennials usually grown as annuals. Ornamental annualer perennials commonly grown as annuals are impatiens *Impatiens* is a genus of about 850-1000 species of flowering plants in the family Balsaminaceae.... , wax begonia Begonia is a genus in the flowering plant family Begoniaceae.... , snapdragon, Pelargonium *Pelargonium* is a genus of flowering plants that includes about 200 species of perennial, succulent, and shrub plants, c... , coleus Coleus is a genus of perennial plants, native to tropical Africa and Asia.... and petunia *Petunia* is a widely-cultivated genus of flowering plants, in the family Solanaceae.... . Some biennials that can be grown as annuals are pansy The Pansy or Pansy Violet is a cultivated garden flower.... and hollyhock The hollyhocks comprise about 60 species of flowering plants in the genus *Alcea* in the mallow family Malvaceae, na... . One seed-to-seed life cycle for an annual can occur in as little as a month in some species, though most last several months. Oilseed rapa *Brassica rapa* is a plant widely cultivated as a leaf vegetable, a root vegetable, and an oilseed.... can go from seed-to-seed in about five weeks under a bank of fluorescent lamps in a school classroom. Many desert annuals are termed ephemeral An ephemeral plant marked by short life cycles, usually six to eight weeks.... s because their seed-to-seed life cycle is only a few weeks. They spend most of the year as seeds to survive dry conditions. Examples of true annuals include corn Maize , also known as corn, is a cereal grain that was domesticated in Mesoamerica.... , lettuce Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant most often grown as a leaf vegetable.... , pea A pea is the small, edible round green bean which grows in a pod on the leguminous vine *Pisum sativum, or in some ... , cauliflower Cauliflower* is a variety of Brassica oleracea in the family Brassicaceae.... , watermelon Watermelon is actually a vegetable and plant of a vine-like herb originally from southern Africa.... , bean Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of Fabaceae used for food or feed.... , zinnia *Zinnia* is a genus of 20 species of annual and perennial plants of family Asteraceae, originally from scrub and dry grass... and marigold Marigold can mean:Flowering plants in the family Asteraceae in the following genera:... . Summer annuals Summer annuals sprout, flower and die within the same spring/summer/fall. The lawn weed, crabgrass, is a summer annual. Winter annuals Winter Annuals are plants that have an annual life span but tend to germanate in the fall or winter and bloom in late autumn/fall, winter or early spring. The plants grow and bloom during the cool season when most other plants are dormant or other annuals are in seed form waiting for warmer weather to germinate. Winter annuals die after flowering and setting seed, the seeds wait to germinate until the soil temperature is cool again in the fall or winter. Winter annuals typically grow low to the ground, where they are usually sheltered from the coldest nights by snow cover, and make use of warm periods in winter for growth when the snow melts. Some common winter annuals include henbit, deadnettle, chickweed A common name applied to plant species in:... , and winter cress. Winter annuals are important ecologically, as they provide vegetative cover that prevents soil erosion during winter and early spring when no other cover exists and they provide fresh vegetation for animals and birds that feed on them. Although they are often considered to be weeds in gardens, this viewpoint is not always necessary, as most of them die when the soil temperature warms up again in early to late spring when other plants are still dormant and have not yet leafed out. Even though they do not compete directly with cultivated plants, sometimes winter annuals are considered a pest in commercial agriculture, because they can be hosts for insect pests or fungal diseases (ovary smut - Microbotryum sp) which attack crops being cultivated. Ironically, the property that they prevent the soil from drying out can also be problematic for commercial agriculture. See also Biennial plant A biennial plant* is a flowering plant that takes between twelve and twenty-four months to complete its lifecycle.... Perennial plant A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years....