Dictionary Definition
herbaceous adj : characteristic of a nonwoody
herb or plant part
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Antonyms
Extensive Definition
A herbaceous plant (or in botanical use, a
herb) is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of
the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be
annual,
biennial
or perennial.
Annual herbaceous plants die completely at the
end of the growing season or when they have flowered and fruited,
and they then grow again from seed.
Herbaceous
perennial and biennial
plants have stems that die
at the end of the growing season, but parts of the plant survive
under or close to the ground from season to season (for biennials,
until the next growing season, when they flower and die). New
growth forms from living tissues remaining on or under the ground,
including roots, a caudex (a thickened portion of
the stem at ground level) or various types of underground
stems, such as bulbs,
corms, stolons, rhizomes and tubers. Examples of herbaceous
biennials include carrot,
parsnip and ragwort;
herbaceous perennials include peony, hosta, mint, most ferns and most grasses. By
contrast, non-herbaceous perennial plants are woody plants
which have stems above
ground that remain alive during the dormant season and grow shoots
the next year from the above-ground parts – these include
trees, shrubs and vines.
Some relatively fast-growing herbaceous plants
(especially annuals) are pioneers, or early-successional
species. Others form the main vegetation of many stable habitats,
occurring for example in the ground layer of forests, or in naturally open
habitats such as
meadow, saltmarsh or desert.
herbaceous in Bulgarian: Тревисто растение
herbaceous in Czech: Bylina (rostlina)
herbaceous in Danish: Urt
herbaceous in German: Krautige Pflanze
herbaceous in Estonian: Rohttaimed
herbaceous in French: Plante herbacée
herbaceous in Indonesian: Terna
herbaceous in Hungarian: Lágy szárú növény
herbaceous in Dutch: Kruidachtig
herbaceous in Polish: Roślina zielna
herbaceous in Quechua: Qura
herbaceous in Simple English: Herbaceous
plant
herbaceous in Serbian: Зељаста биљка
herbaceous in Finnish: Ruoho
herbaceous in Chinese: 草本