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A perennial plant or perennial ( Latin per, "through", annus, "year") is a plant that lives for more than two years. This term is usually applied to herbaceous plants or small shrubs rather than large shrubs or trees, but used strictly it also applies to the larger and longer-lived species. As opposed to annual plants, which never flower again after withering, or biennial plants, which only live for two seasons, perennials can come back season after season.

Herbaceous perennials are plants that do not form permanent woody tissue. In warmer and more clement climates they may grow continuously. In seasonal climates, their growth pattern is adapted to the growing season. In cooler temperate regions they generally grow and bloom during the warm part of the year, and the foliage dies back every winter. Regrowth is from their existing tissue or root-stock rather than from seed, as with annuals and biennials.

In some cases, these perennials may retain their foliage all year round, even in seasonal climates. Herbaceous perennials that retain their foliage all year round may be called evergreen perennials. Others are called deciduous.

Examples of evergreen perennials;

Examples of deciduous perennials;

Woody perennials (ie. trees and shrubs) retain their woody structure permanently, but may lose their foliage in seasonal climates.

Perennial plants dominate most natural ecosystems. For example, grasses and most forbs on the prairieA prairie is an area of land of low topographic relief that principally supports grasses and herbs, with few trees, and is generally of a mesic (moderate or temperate) climate. Most of the Great Plains, most of the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Io are perennial. Wild perennial plants are usually better competitors than annual plants, especially under resource-poor conditions. This is due to larger root systems which can access water and soil nutrients deeper in the soil and to earlier emergence.

There are many perennial plants important to human food production including most fruitIn botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which would be plum, apple, and or and nut trees.

1 See also

• Annual plantAn annual is a plant that usually germinates, flowers and dies in one year. Some perennials and biennials are grown in gardens as annuals for convenience, particularly if they are not considered hardy for the local climate. Annuals are often used in garde
• Biennial plantA Biennial plant is a plant that takes between twelve and twenty-four months to complete its lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves and stems (vegetative structures) and then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months. The next spr

2 External links

• http://www.orst.edu/extension/mg/botany/cycles.html