annual

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For more information on annual, visit Britannica.com.

A plant whose life cycle is completed in a single growing season.

annual rings

An event that occurs once a year.

Investopedia Says:
Annual reports are issued once every 12 months.

Also referred to as "yearly."

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1. A plant that germinates, grows, flowers, sets seed, and dies over a few months' time. Most annuals germinate in spring and die in late summer or fall, but they can grow at any time of the year if conditions are favorable.
2. A plant that is treated as an annual and grown for only one season's display. Many kinds of perennials, bulbs, grasses, and tropical plants are called annuals by gardeners. For example, impatiens and begonias are often used as annual bedding plants, but they are actually tropical perennials and would keep growing indefinitely if protected from frost.

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Conducted once each year.

• a. beard grass — polypogon monspeliensis.
• a. cumulative stress — the accumulated stresses for the year from all sources including geographic, climatic, predation, pollution and the like.
• a. goldeneye — viguiera annua.
• a. livestock calendar — a calendar setting out the cardinal events and tasks for the year for the relevant farming enterprise, e.g. a beef breeding calendar.
• a. mercury — mercurialis annua.
• a. ryegrass — see lolium rigidum.
• a. saltbush — atriplex muelleri.

• Botany and Plant Parts - annual: plant with life cycle of one year or season
• Publications - annual: yearbook, esp. of school or organization
• Farming and Crops - annual: plant that lives for only one year or one season
• Plants and Plant Parts - annual: plant with life cycle of one year or season
• Fixed Times - annual: (adj) yearly, once a year

Peas are an annual plant.

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed. Some seedless plants can also be considered annuals even though they do not grow a flower.^[1]

In gardening, annual often refers to a plant grown outdoors in the spring and summer and surviving just for one growing season. Many food plants are, or are grown as, annuals, including virtually all domesticated grains. Some perennials and biennials are grown in gardens as annuals for convenience, particularly if they are not considered cold hardy for the local climate. Carrot, celery and parsley are true biennials that are usually grown as annual crops for their edible roots, petioles and leaves, respectively. Tomato, sweet potato and bell pepper are tender perennials usually grown as annuals.

Ornamental annual perennials commonly grown as annuals are impatiens, wax begonia, snapdragon, Pelargonium, coleus and petunia.

One seed-to-seed life cycle for an annual can occur in as little as a month in some species, though most last several months. Oilseed rapa can go from seed-to-seed in about five weeks under a bank of fluorescent lamps in a school classroom.^{[original research?]} Many desert annuals are therophytes,^[2] because their seed-to-seed life cycle is only weeks and they spend most of the year as seeds to survive dry conditions.

Examples of true annuals include corn, wheat, rice, lettuce, peas, watermelon, beans, zinnia and marigold.^[3]

Contents 1 Summer 2 Winter 3 Molecular genetics 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Summer

Summer annuals sprout, flower, produce seed, and die during the warmer months of the year.

The lawn weed crabgrass is a summer annual. The Dragon Wing Begonia is a summer annual.

Winter

Winter annuals germinate in autumn or winter, live through the winter, then bloom in winter or spring.

The plants grow and bloom during the cool season when most other plants are dormant or other annuals are in seed form waiting for warmer weather to germinate. Winter annuals die after flowering and setting seed. The seeds germinate in the fall or winter when the soil temperature is cool.

Winter annuals typically grow low to the ground, where they are usually sheltered from the coldest nights by snow cover, and make use of warm periods in winter for growth when the snow melts. Some common winter annuals include henbit, deadnettle, chickweed, and winter cress.

Winter annuals are important ecologically, as they provide vegetative cover that prevents soil erosion during winter and early spring when no other cover exists and they provide fresh vegetation for animals and birds that feed on them. Although they are often considered to be weeds in gardens, this viewpoint is not always necessary, as most of them die when the soil temperature warms up again in early to late spring when other plants are still dormant and have not yet leafed out.

Even though they do not compete directly with cultivated plants, sometimes winter annuals are considered a pest in commercial agriculture, because they can be hosts for insect pests or fungal diseases (ovary smut – Microbotryum sp) which attack crops being cultivated. Ironically, the property that they prevent the soil from drying out can also be problematic for commercial agriculture.

Molecular genetics

In 2008, it was discovered that the inactivation of only two genes in one species of annual plant leads to the conversion into a perennial plant.^[4] Researchers deactivated the SOC1 and FUL genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, which control flowering time. This switch established phenotypes common in perennial plants, such as wood formation.

See also

• Biennial plant
• Perennial plant

References

1. ^ Britannica Online
2. ^ Collinson, A. S. (1988). Introduction to world vegetation. London: Unwin Hyman. pp. 23. ISBN 978-0-04-581031-4. 
3. ^ www.floridata.com
4. ^ Melzer, S; Lens, F; Gennen, J; Vanneste, S; Rohde, A; Beeckman, T (2008). "Flowering-time genes modulate meristem determinacy and growth form in Arabidopsis thaliana". Nature Genetics 40 (12): 1489–92. doi:10.1038/ng.253. PMID 18997783. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Annuals

• Examples of Annual Flowers

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Common misspelling(s) of annual

• anual

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - årlig, årligt tilbagevendende
n. - årbog

Nederlands (Dutch)
jaarlijks, eenjarig, éénjarige plant, jaargetij (de), jaarboek

Français (French)
adj. - périodique, annuel
n. - (Bot) plante annuelle, publication annuelle, album (livre pour enfants)

Deutsch (German)
adj. - einjährig, jährlich, alljährlich, Jahres-
n. - Jahresschrift, Jahrbuch

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ετήσια έκδοση, επετηρίδα, ημερολόγιο, ετήσιο φυτό
adj. - ετήσιος, χρονιάρικος

Italiano (Italian)
annuario, periodico, annali, quinquennale, annuale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - anuário (m), publicação (f) anual, planta (f) anual (Agr.)
adj. - anual

Русский (Russian)
однолетник, однолетнее растение, ежегодный журнал, ежегодная книга, годичный, ежегодный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - anual
n. - publicación anual, anuario

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - årsbok, kalender
adj. - årlig, års-

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
每年的, 一年一次的, 一年生的, 年鉴, 年刊, 一年生植物

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 每年的, 一年一次的, 一年生的
n. - 年鑒, 年刊, 一年生植物

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 1년의
n. - 연보, 1년 생 식물, 기일

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 一年の, 毎年の, 例年の, 年一回の, 一年生の
n. - 年鑑, 年報, 一年生植物

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) نشره سنويه, دفعه سنويه (صفه) سنوي, حولي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮שנתי, חד-שנתי (צמח)‬
n. - ‮שנתון‬

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