Annual plants live only one growing season. There are two types of annuals:
- Winter annuals germinate in the fall and form a small rosette of leaves that persist through the winter. The following growing season, the plant continues to grow, flowers, produces seeds sometime in the summer, and then dies.
- Summer annuals germinate in the spring and complete all growth, including seed production, by the end of the growing season and then die.
Biennial plants live two growing seasons. Normally these plants form a basal cluster of leaves the first year, called a rosette, and send up a seed stalk (bolt) the second year.
Perennial plants live from one year to the next, producing leaves and stems for more than two years from the same crown. Most range plants are perennial.