Life Span

Based on how long they live and complete their reproductive cycle, plants are grouped into three life-span categories. Annuals (therophytes or ephemerals) complete their entire life cycle - germination, growth, flowering, fruiting and death - within a single growing season (e.g. peas, maize, watermelon, groundnut, sunflower, rice). Biennials live through two growing seasons: purely vegetative growth in the first, followed by flowering and fruiting in the second, after which the plant dies (e.g. onion, lettuce, fennel, carrot, radish, cabbage, spinach). Perennials (geophytes) live for many years. Those that flower and fruit repeatedly, year after year, are polycarpic (e.g. mango, sapota); those that flower and fruit o …