Perennial plant

Perennial (Plant) [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names


	A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years.

(from the Latin *“per”* meaning "through", and “annus” meaning "year") This term is usually applied to herbaceous non-woody plants plants or small shrubs rather than large shrubs or trees, but used strictly it also applies to the larger and longer-lived species. Perennials usually produce one or more flower crop each year. Compare with: Annual; Biennial; Ephemeral.

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994