Herbaceous plants that live throughout the year are called annuals. In one spring-summer season, they go through their entire life cycle and die, leaving seeds that will sprout the next year. Seed germination of annual plants depends on natural conditions. When the temperature and humidity are optimal for their development, the first shoots appear. There are many types of annual plants. It can be garden and melons, cereals, weeds and ornamental grasses, garden flowers. Annual plants are divided into winter and spring. Winter crops sprout in autumn, hibernate under a layer of snow and continue to grow in spring. Spring crops begin their cycle by germinating from seeds in spring.
Annual species
There are many ephemerals among annuals, which include fast-growing plants. They go through all cycles in a short time: from germination to seed ripening - and they are winter and spring. In the wild, ephemera grow in deserts, semi-deserts and dry steppes. Their vegetative period begins in early spring, when there is the required soil temperature and sufficient moisture for germination. These herbaceous annuals have time to quickly go through all stages of growth and by an unfavorable season to form seeds or fruits, which, after the onset of high temperatures, ripen and fall off in order to germinate the next year.
Winter ephemerals sprout in autumn and form a rosette of leaves, which persists in winter. Spring pasture in hot and unfavorable areas for agriculture provides grass cover thanks to such plants. All annual winter plants have early ripening periods. This property is used in the cultivation of grain crops, for harvesting grain, which is a strategic reserve of the country.
Spring annuals are sown in early spring. The gardens and front gardens are often planted with bright flowers related to annual plants. Some are ephemeral, but many have long vegetative growth. These plants have the ability to simultaneously form seeds and develop new stems from the buds of growth. Over the summer, such plants grow actively and by autumn they form a huge bush with many bright flowers. This property of some varieties of abundantly flowering annuals has made them a favorite of many amateur gardeners. The most common flowers are marigolds, calendula, nasturtium, petunia and other annuals. They can be grown not only in the ground, but also in pots, on a windowsill, on a balcony, creating a favorable environment for them.
Cultivated annuals used for food
In central Russia, many annuals are cultivated and used for harvesting. To accelerate their growth, seeds are sown indoors. This allows you to get seedlings at an early date. This applies to vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, which have a prolonged vegetative growth, and the fruits may not ripen due to too short a summer.
The work of plant breeders has made it possible for gardeners to grow varieties of annual crops with an early ripening period. The resulting seedlings of annual plants of vegetable and flower crops can greatly speed up the production of fruits and enjoy the result of their labor. Early harvests of annual vegetables and melons became possible after the development of technologies for growing seedlings in the winter.
Herbs that improve the taste of dishes and have a beneficial effect on the human endocrine system have a short maturation cycle and belong to annual plants. Dill, coriander, basil and other herbs go through the entire cycle of plant development in one year and produce seeds that are used as a seasoning. Some of these grasses have such a short development cycle that they are capable of producing two harvests per year, in spring and autumn.
Annuals come in a huge variety of species and types. Many of them have long been domesticated by man. Using their seeds, a person solves his nutritional problems, ennobles his territory, obtains food for animals and receives biologically active supplements to his diet that support his health.
