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Annual (plant)
An annual is a plant which grows only for one year, produces seeds, and then dies in the winter. In order to farm or grow ornamental annual plants, seed (or seedlings) must be produced or bought and planted each spring.
If the plant in question is being grown for the food value of its seeds, like most grains, the farmer must ensure sufficient production of seeds to not only provide a viable crop for food, but enough to store over the winter and plant for the next year's crop. Sometimes agricultural societies encounter disastrous famines if production is too low, forcing them to eat all the seed stock to survive the winter, leaving them nothing to plant the following year.
See also
- Snippet from Wikipedia: Annual plant
An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. Globally, only 6% of all plant species and 15% of herbaceous plants (excluding trees and shrubs) are annuals. The annual life cycle has independently emerged in over 120 different plant families throughout the entire angiosperm phylogeny.