Few beginner plant questions

[shane472]

Hey guys, I'm a first year student in Humber's landscape technician program and I'll be the first to admit I don't have any background in horticulture. I have a ton to learn and I'm running into a few problems here that I think some of you can probably answer for me pretty easily. We were assigned a plant list in our ornamental plants class and in botany and soils we were told to run down the list and put whether each plant is an angiosperm or a gymnosperm, monocot or dicot, annual or perennial etc. A few of the things I'm wondering are:

1. I read on one site that all herbaceous perennials are deciduous but after doing research it doesn't appear to be true. Is it untrue or are they exceptions?

2. Are annuals not considered deciduous because the whole plant dies/is removed at the end of the year?

3. Looking into plant types I'm seeing some listed as bulbs. Are they perennials, annuals or in a category of there own?

4. Are all grasses deciduous? I heard this as well but I'm finding many ornamental grasses that aren't.

5. Grasses are all monocots, right?

My knowledge of deciduous plants is extremely lacking. All I knew about them going into this course were that they were trees that lost their leaves in the winter. We haven't covered that yet but I'm finding myself wanting to learn more to help out with this assignment. I feel kind of dumb asking what are probably really easy questions but I'd really appreciate it if someone could take a few mins to help me out or point me in the direction of a good website/learning source.

Thanks a lot,

Shane

[FungusMudGrub]

If by deciduous you mean "sheds their leaves at the end of the season", then herbaceous perennials are not because they totally die back each year, with the stems dieing as well as the leaves. That's what makes them herbaceous. Annuals by definition die after one season, so not deciduous either. Ditto for grasses. Bulbs I would think are always perennials, since that is the purpose of the bulb, to give the plant reserves to come back in the spring.

And I am 99% sure all grasses are monocots.

Disclaimer: these are landscaper answers, not hort. professor answers.

[cklandscapingorlando]

Grasses are not annuals and in some climates are ever green.Other wise they are perennials.
I would not consider any perennial deciduous becaus by their nature they die back in the first freeze but the root servives
annuals just die and are replaced or re-grow from seed.
bulbs are perennials
Deciduous means a plant sheds its leaves and goes dormant then begins growth from the same point.Perinial means the plant dies every year then re-grows and flowers every year.bi-annual means a plant grows one year and then lowers the second thn dies.annual means it dies.You can pm if you like I'm no botonist but I study alot of plants

[shane472]

Thanks a lot for the answers, I really appreciate it. I've managed to figure out most of this stuff by continuing to do research here but it's good to hear I'm on the right track haha

Horticulture is by no means my strong area of study but I'm working real hard to make it that.

[natural12]

What about helleborus, heuchera, delosperma to name a few. These do not die back during winter and are considered perennials. Would they be considered evergreen?

[4seasons]

natural they are considered semi-evergreen in our zone.
ajuga is another
liriope- another, they don't totally die back but they dont really stay green.

[cklandscapingorlando]

Technicly an azeala is a perennial.Its just a long lived perennial.Well all plant that live year after year after year are.When talking to a client you tend to keep the perennial talk to the lower growing and flowering plants and the rest are woodies.

[NCSULandscaper]

the actual definition of a perennial is any plant that lasts 3 seasons or more. So that means that all perennials dont have to die back to be considered one. Annuals are not deciduous, they totally die off after one year. Bulbs by definition would be classified as a perennial. Ornamental grasses are also classified as perennials, again a perennial doesnt have to die back to be called one. Some ornamental grasses are considered annuals in certain zones, because they will die completely after one season.

Yes, i would say that all grasses are monocots. From the simple fact that #1, their veins are parallel(which 99.99% of monocots will have) #2 when the seed of a monocot sprouts, a single blade will emerge, with dicots you will have 2 leaves emerge. #3 when you cut the stem of a monocot, the vascular tissue will be scattered, as opposed to concentric rings with dicots.

[agla]

There are also grasses that are true annuals.

Deciduous means that the plant sheds its leaves as part of its yearly growth cycle and regrows them later. My understanding, which is probably embedded from school, is that it has to actually shed its leaves and not just die back to fit the definition.

The reason that a plant is not considered a perennial unless its life cycle continues beyond two years is that there are several plants that are biennial which means that they live two seasons. Typically they use their first season to store up energy and then shoot up the next year to flower and seed using that energy, then die. (raspberry, fox glove, mullen, ...)

Technically, an azalea comes back year after, but woody plants are not referred to as perennials.

I don't think any grasses are actually deciduous.

I'm unsure whether or not some biennials produce a bulb.

Plenty of perennials don't die back. Dandelions and Plantain weeds in my lawn come to mind right away.

[shane472]

There are also grasses that are true annuals.

What are some kinds of grasses that are annuals? And are they true annuals in all zones or tender perennials?

[NCSULandscaper]

annual rye comes to mind along with other grassy weeds are annuals, the others(ornamentals) are just tender perennials depending on the zone you are in