Herbaceous plant

Herbaceous plants are all plants which have no secondary growth and therefore do not become woody. There are one-year, two-year and " perennial " herbaceous plants ( which are, strictly speaking, perennial and perennial plants to distinguish ).

The perennial herbaceous plants, both evergreen ( for example, many tropical plants ) occur as well as plants that can die due to cold or drought their green aerial parts and survive the unfavorable season in storage organs. The latter drive back out again if the conditions for new growth are favorable.

Demarcation

The counterpart of herbaceous plants are perennial, woody plants, ie shrubs and trees. Herbaceous and woody plants generally differ by their growth form.

However, the assignment of a plant to a group of herbaceous or woody is not always possible. A transitional position take the perennial subshrubs (eg, sage). For them, only the near-ground woody part of the aerial shoots.

Disambiguation

In horticultural usage, perennial herbaceous plants of temperate zones are also called perennials. Usually, however, called perennial tropical, evergreen plants are not as perennials (a famous exception to this rule, however, the banana plant ). For climbing plants, there are also herbaceous and woody taxa.

In everyday parlance, these terms are often used differently. In this context, the term herb is most problematic, because it has many different meanings, and is not the same means as herbaceous plant.

In pharmacy Herba called (literally, " herb" ) unsorted leaf and stem fractions and inflorescences regardless of the botanical classification of herbs. Herba means here " the plant without the useless parts", in contrast to Plantation (the " whole plant ").

In the context of food refers herbaceous and woody unspecific on grobfasrige and woody shares, in distinction to the soft tissues suitable for consumption.

Types of plants

Herbaceous plants can be found at the following life forms:

  • Cryptophytes ( geophytes ): plants whose outlasting organs are located under the ground. Example: Potato
  • Hemicryptophytes: plants whose Überdauerungsknospen lie on the surface
  • Hygrophytes: plants that specialize in moist habitats
  • Rheophyten: Plants in and around flowing waters, which are adapted to periodic flooding
  • Lithophytes: plants that grow on or in rock
  • Epiphytes: plants that grow on trees and other plants
  • Therophytes: plants, each of which survive only one growing season
  • Plant morphology
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